Multi-client service system platform

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure is directed to various ways of improving the functioning of computer systems, information networks, data stores, search engine systems and methods, and other advantages. Among other things, provided herein are methods, systems, components, processes, modules, blocks, circuits, sub-systems, articles, and other elements (collectively referred to in some cases as the “platform” or the “system”) that collectively enable, in a single database and system, the development and maintenance of a set of universal contact objects that relate to the contacts of a business and that have attributes that enable use for a wide range of activities, including sales activities, marketing activities, service activities, content development activities, and others, as well as improved methods and systems for sales, marketing and services that make use of such universal contact objects.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application62/669,617, entitled “MULTI-CLIENT SERVICE SYSTEM PLATFORM” filed on May10, 2018, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to a multi-client service systemplatform.

BACKGROUND

Conventional systems for enabling marketing and sales activities for abusiness user do not also respectively enable support and serviceinteractions with customers, notwithstanding that the same individualsare typically involved in all of those activities for a business,transitioning in status from prospect, to customer, to user. Whilemarketing activities, sales activities, and service activities stronglyinfluence the success of each other, businesses are required toundertake complex and time-consuming tasks to obtain relevantinformation for one activity from the others, such as forming queries,using complicated APIs, or otherwise extracting data from separatedatabases, networks, or other information technology systems (some onpremises and others in the cloud), transforming data from one nativeformat to another suitable form for use in a different environment,synchronizing different data sources when changes are made in differentdatabases, normalizing data, cleansing data, and configuring it for use.The difficulty and complexity of these tasks tends to deter use ofinformation from one activity when conducting the other, except in asomewhat ad hoc fashion. For example, a person providing service to acustomer may not know what product the customer has purchased, leadingto delay, confusion, and frustration for the service person and thecustomer. A need exists for the improved methods and systems providedherein that enable, in a single database and system, the development andmaintenance of a set of universal contact objects that relate to thecontacts of a business and that have attributes that enable use for awide range of activities, including sales activities, marketingactivities, service activities, content development activities, andothers, as well as for improved methods and systems for sales,marketing, and services that make use of such universal contact objects.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to various ways of improving thefunctioning of computer systems, information networks, data stores,search engine systems and methods, and other advantages. Among otherthings, provided herein are methods, systems, components, processes,modules, blocks, circuits, sub-systems, articles, and other elements(collectively referred to in some cases as the “platform” or the“system”) that collectively enable, in a single database and system, thedevelopment and maintenance of a set of universal contact objects thatrelate to the contacts of a business and that have attributes thatenable use for a wide range of activities, including sales activities,marketing activities, service activities, content developmentactivities, and others, as well as improved methods and systems forsales, marketing, and services that make use of such universal contactobjects.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure a method isdisclosed. The method includes receiving, by a processing system of amulti-client service platform, a set of service features selected by aclient of the multi-client service platform. The method includesreceiving, by the processing system, a set of customization parameterscorresponding to the set of service features from the client, whereinthe customization parameters include a set of custom ticket attributesand a ticket pipeline definition. The method also includes configuring,by the processing system, a client-specific service system datastructure based on the set of service features and the set of thecustomization parameters, the client-specific service system datastructure including a ticket object definition that includes the customticket attributes. The method further includes deploying, by theprocessing system, a client-specific service system based on theclient-specific service system data structure, the client-specificservice system being configured provide the set of service features toprocess tickets instantiated from the ticket object in accordance with aticket pipeline that is defined in accordance with the ticket pipelinedefinition.

In embodiments, the ticket pipeline definition defines a plurality ofpipeline stages of the ticket pipeline and, for each pipeline stage ofthe pipeline stage, a respective set of conditions that correspond tothe pipeline stage such that a ticket meeting the set of conditions ismoved to the pipeline stage. In some of these embodiments deploying theclient-specific service system includes, for each pipeline stage:executing one or more pipeline listening threads that listen for ticketshaving attributes that meet the set of conditions corresponding to thepipeline stage; and in response to identifying a current ticket havingattributes that meet the set of conditions of the pipeline stage, addingthe current ticket to the pipeline stage. In some embodiments, addingthe current ticket to the pipeline stage includes updating a statusattribute of the current ticket with a value that indicates the pipelinestage.

In embodiments, the ticket object further includes a set of defaultticket attributes and a status attribute that indicates a currentpipeline stage of a ticket.

In embodiments, the set of customization parameters further include: afirst ticket type corresponding to the set of custom ticket parameters;a second set of custom ticket parameters; and a second ticket typecorresponding to the second set of custom ticket parameters. In some ofthese embodiments, the client-specific service system data structurefurther includes a second ticket object definition that includes thesecond set of custom ticket parameters, wherein tickets generated basedon the second ticket object are of the second ticket type.

In embodiments, the set of customization parameters include one or moreworkflow definitions, wherein each workflow definition defines a set ofworkflow conditions of a workflow and one or more actions that areexecuted with respect to a ticket in response to the set of workflowconditions being met by one or more attributes of the ticket. In some ofthese embodiments, deploying the client-specific service systemincludes, for each of the one or more workflow definitions: executingone or more workflow listening threads that listen for tickets havingattributes that meet the set of workflow conditions of the workflowdefinition; and in response to identifying a current ticket havingattributes that meet the set of conditions of the pipeline stage,executing the one or more actions of the workflow definition. In someembodiments, a workflow definition of the one or more workflowdefinitions is defined with respect to a stage of the ticket pipelinedefinition such that the one or more actions are performed with respectto a ticket only when the ticket is in the stage. In some embodiments, aworkflow definition of the one or more workflow definitions is definedindependent of the ticket pipeline definition such that the one or moreactions are performed with respect to a ticket independent of whichstage the ticket is in. In some embodiments, at least one action definedin at least one of the workflow definitions is selected by the clientfrom a set of predefined actions via a graphical user interfacepresented by the multi-client service platform. In some embodiments, theset of predefined actions include generating and sending an electroniccommunication to a contact that owns the ticket. In some embodiments,the graphical user interface further allows the client to provide acommunication template that is used to generate the electroniccommunication. In some embodiments, the set of predefined actionsinclude setting a task for a service specialist associated with theclient. In some embodiments, at least one action defined in at least oneof the workflow definitions is a custom action that is defined by theclient via the graphical user interface.

In embodiments, the set of service features includes a chat bot servicefeature and the customization parameters include a script to be used bychat bots of the client-specific service system.

In embodiments, the set of service features includes a feedback systemthat collects feedback from contacts of the client and the set ofcustomization parameters include one or more surveys defined by theclient.

In embodiments the client-specific service system is configured toaccess one or more microservices of the multi-client service platform.In some of these embodiments, the one or more microservices include amachine learning system that performs machine-learning tasks on behalfof the client-specific service system. In some embodiments, the one ormore microservices support a customer service specialist portal of theclient-specific service system.

In some embodiments, the one or more microservices include aconversation system the powers chat bots deployed by the client-specificservice system.

In embodiments, the client-specific service system includes or accessesa contact database that stores contact data relating to contacts of theclient and a ticket database that stores ticket data relating to ticketsinitiated by a subset of the contacts of the client.

In embodiments, the contact database is shared with acustomer-relationship management system of the client, such that thecontact data is representative of an entire customer lifecycle.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a system isdisclosed. The system includes a client configuration system thatreceives customization parameters of a client relating to aclient-specific customer service system to be deployed by the system onbehalf of the client. The system also includes a client configurationsystem that deploys the client-specific customer service system onbehalf of the client, wherein the client-specific customer servicesystem is configured according to the customization parameters andperforms one or more customer service related tasks on behalf of theclient including issuing tickets to initiate an instance of a serviceworkflow. The system further includes a proprietary database that storescontact records and ticket records, wherein the proprietary databasealso supports at least one of a sales workflow and a marketing workflow.The system also includes a knowledge graph that stores informationrelating to the client, the contact, and content that may be referencedduring an attempted resolution of a ticket according to the serviceworkflow.

According to some embodiments of the system, each contact recordcorresponds to a respective contact and stores data relating to thecontact throughout the lifecycle of the contact with the client.

According to some embodiments of the system, each ticket recordcorresponds to a respective ticket issued by a respectiveclient-specific customer service system and includes data relating tothe servicing of the ticket.

According to some embodiments of the system, the customizationparameters include a definition of the service workflow, wherein thedefinition of the service workflow indicates an order by which certainactions are taken when servicing a contact of the client.

According to some embodiments of the system, the client-specificcustomer service system includes one or more chat bots that engage incustomer-service related conversations with a contact of the clientseeking resolution of a ticket.

According to some embodiments of the system, the client-specificcustomer service system includes a communication integrator thattransfers a contact between communication mediums during the lifecycleof a ticket in accordance with the workflow.

According to some embodiments of the system, the client-specificcustomer service system includes a workflow manager that determineswhich actions are to be undertaken by the client-specific customerservice system when servicing individual tickets.

According to some embodiments of the system, the client-specificcustomer service system includes a feedback system that collectsfeedback from clients.

According to some embodiments of the system, the feedback systemimplements a feedback workflow that defines triggers that cause thefeedback system to request feedback from a contact.

According to some embodiments of the system, the triggers include apurchase, a repurchase, a client visit to the contact, a servicetechnician visit, a product delivery, a ticket initiation, and/or aticket closure.

These and other systems, methods, objects, features, and advantages ofthe present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art fromthe following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and thedrawings.

All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated in their entiretyby reference. References to items in the singular should be understoodto include items in the plural, and vice versa, unless explicitly statedotherwise or clear from the text. Grammatical conjunctions are intendedto express any and all disjunctive and conjunctive combinations ofconjoined clauses, sentences, words, and the like, unless otherwisestated or clear from the context.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The disclosure and the following detailed description of certainembodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the followingfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a high-level flow in which a content platform is used toprocess online content, identify a cluster of semantically relevanttopics and produce generated online presence content involving thesemantically relevant topics.

FIG. 2 provides a functional block diagram of certain components andelements of a content development platform, including elements forextracting key phrases from a primary online content object, a contentcluster data store for storing clusters of topics and a contentdevelopment and management application having a user interface fordeveloping content.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 show examples of user interface elements forpresenting suggested topics and related information.

FIG. 6 provides a functional block diagram of certain components andelements of a content development platform, including integration of acustomer relationship management system with other elements of theplatform.

FIG. 7 provides a detailed functional block diagram of components andelements of a content development platform.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface for reporting information relatingto online content generated using the content development and managementplatform.

FIG. 9 depicts a user interface in which activity resulting from the useof the platform is reported to a marketer or other user.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example environment of a directed content systemaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 depicts an example of the crawling system and the informationextraction system maintaining a knowledge graph according to someembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 depicts a visual representation of a portion of an exampleknowledge graph representation according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example configuration of the lead scoring systemand the content generation system for identifying intended recipients ofmessages and generating personalized messages for the one or moreintended recipients.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example configuration of the directed contentsystem according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 illustrates a method for generating personalized messages onbehalf of a user according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example environment of a multi-client servicesystem platform according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17A illustrates an example of a contact database object accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17B illustrates an example of a client database object according tosome embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17C illustrates an example of a ticket database object according tosome embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 depicts a visual representation of a portion of an exampleknowledge graph representation according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a multi-client service system platformproviding service systems on behalf of two independent clients accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is a flow chart illustrating a set of operations of a method fordeploying a client-specific service system.

FIG. 21 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user a status of a ticket according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 22 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user data surrounding an issued ticket, including aconversation with a contact, according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user a ticket overview of multiple tickets of various contactsaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user a feedback overview of multiple contacts of a clientaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 25 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user feedback received from a user, including a feedbacktimeline, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 is a screenshot showing an example GUI of a service system forshowing a user feedback received from a user, including a feedbacktimeline, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 27-35 are screenshots of example GUIs that allow a usercorresponding to a client to customize different aspects of the client'srespective feedback system, according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 36 is a screenshot of an example of a GUI that displays a breakdownof the net promotor scores of the contacts of a particular clientaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 37 and 38 are screenshots of an example GUI for uploading contentto a service platform for inclusion in a knowledge graph according tosome embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 39 is a screenshot of an example GUI for viewing analytics datarelated to the uploaded content according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIGS. 40-44 are screenshots of an example GUI that allows a user tocustomize the service workflow of a client.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to computers,computer systems, networks and data storage arrangements comprisingdigitally encoded information and machine-readable instructions. Thesystems are configured and arranged so as to accomplish the presentmethods, including by transforming given inputs according to saidinstructions to yield new and useful outputs determining behaviors andphysical outcomes. Users of the present system and method will gain newand commercially significant abilities to convey ideas and to promote,create, sell and control articles of manufacture, goods, and otherproducts. The machinery in which the present system and method areimplemented will therefore comprise novel and useful devices andarchitectures of computing and processing equipment for achieving thepresent objectives.

With reference to FIG. 1, in embodiments of the present disclosure, aplatform is provided having a variety of methods, systems, components,services, interfaces, processes, components, data structures, and otherelements (collectively referred to as the “content development platform100” except where context indicates otherwise), which enable automateddevelopment, deployment, and management of content, typically for anenterprise, that is adapted to support a variety of enterprisefunctions, including marketing strategy and communications, websitedevelopment, search engine optimization, sales force management,electronic commerce, social networking, and others. Among otherbenefits, the content development platform 100 uses a range of automatedprocesses to extract and analyze existing online content of anenterprise, parse and analyze the content, and develop a cluster ofadditional content that is highly relevant to the enterprise, withoutreliance on conventional keyword-based techniques. Referring to FIG. 1,the content development platform 100 may generally facilitate processingof a primary online content object 102, such as a main web page of anenterprise, to establish a topic cluster 168 of topics that are relevantto one or more core topics 106 that are found in or closely related tothe content of the primary line content object 102, such as based onsemantic similarity of the topics in the topic cluster 168, includingcore topics 106, to content within the primary content object 102. Theplatform 100 may further enable generation of generated online presencecontent 160, such as reflecting various topics in the topic cluster 168,for use by marketers, sales people, and other writers, or contentcreators on behalf of the enterprise.

In embodiments, the content development platform 100 includes methodsand systems for generating a cluster of correlated content from theprimary online content object 102. In embodiments, the primary onlinecontent object 102 is a web page of an enterprise. In embodiments, theprimary online content object 102 is a social media page of anenterprise. In the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, themain web page of an enterprise, or of a business unit of an enterprise,is provided as an example of a primary online content object 102 and insome cases herein is described as a “pillar” of content, reflecting thatthe web page is an important driver of business for the enterprise, suchas for delivering marketing messages, managing public relations,attracting talent, and routing or orienting customers to relevantproducts and other information. References to a web page or the likeherein should be understood to apply to other types of primary onlinecontent objects 102, except where context indicates otherwise. Anobjective of the content development platform 100 may be to drivetraffic to a targeted web page, in particular by increasing thelikelihood that the web page may be found in search engines, or by usersfollowing links to the web page that may be contained in other content,such as content developed using the content development platform 100.

In an aspect, the present systems, data configuration architectures andmethods allow an improvement over conventional online content generationschemes. As stated before, traditional online promotional content reliedon key word placement and on sympathetic authorship of a main subject(e.g., a web site) and corresponding secondary publications (e.g., blogsand sub-topical content related to the web site), which methods rely onknown objective and absolute ranking criteria to successfully promoteand rank the web site and sub-topical content. In an increasinglysubjective, personalized and context-sensitive search environment, thepresent systems and methods develop canonical value around a primaryonline content object such as a web site. In an aspect, a cluster ofsupportive and correlated content is intelligently generated orindicated so as to optimize and promote the online work product of apromoter (e.g., in support of an agenda or marketing effort). In anexample, large numbers of online pages are taken as inputs to thepresent system and method (e.g., using a crawling, parallel orsequential page processing machine and software).

As shown in simplified FIG. 1, a “core topic” 106 or main subject for apromotional or marketing effort, related to one or more topics, phrases,or the like extracted based on the methods and systems described hereinfrom a primary online content object 102, may be linked to a pluralityof supporting and related other topics, such as sub-topics. The coretopic 106 may comprise, for example, a canonical source of informationon that general subject matter, and preferably be a subject supportingor justifying links with other information on the general topic of aprimary online content object 102. In embodiments, visitors to a sitewhere generated online content 160 is located can start at a hyperlinkedsub-topic of content and be directed to a core topic 106 within a page,such as a page linked to a primary online content object 102 or to theprimary online content object 102 itself. In an example, a core topic106 can be linked to several (e.g., three to eight, or more) sub-topics.A recommendation or suggestion tool, to be described further below, canrecommend or suggest sub-topics, or conversely, it can dissuade orsuggest avoidance of sub-topics based on automated logic, which can beenabled by a machine learned process. As will be discussed herein, acontent strategy may be employed in developing the overall family oflinked content, and the content strategy may supersede conventional keyword based strategies according to some or all embodiments hereof.

In embodiments, the system and method analyze, store and processinformation available from a crawling step, including for a givenpromoter's web site (e.g., one having a plurality of online pages), soas to determine a salient subject matter and potential sub-topicsrelated to said subject matter of the site. Associations derived fromthis processing and analysis are stored and further used in subsequentmachine learning based analyses of other sites. Data derived from theanalysis and storage of the above pages, content and extracted analyticsmay be organized in an electronic data store, which is preferably alarge aggregated database and which may be organized, for example, usingMYSQL or a similar format.

FIG. 2 provides a detailed functional block diagram of certaincomponents and elements of a content development platform, includingelements for extracting key phrases from a primary online contentobject, a content cluster data store 132 that stores clusters of topics,and a content development and management application 150 having a userinterface that allows users to develop content. Within the platform 100,key phrases 112 are extracted from the primary online content object 102and are processed, such as using a variety of models 118, resulting inone or more content clusters 130 that are stored in a content clusterdata store 132. The clusters may comprise the topic clusters 168 thatare semantically relevant to core topics reflected in the primarycontent object 102, as indicated by the key phrases. The models 118,which may access a corpus of content extracted by crawling a relevantset of pages on the Internet, are applied to the key phrases 112 toestablish the clusters, which arrange topics around a core topic basedon semantic similarity. From the content clusters 130 a suggestiongenerator 134 may generate one or more suggested topics 138, which maybe presented in a user interface 152 of a content development managementapplication 150 within which an agent of an enterprise, such as amarketer, a sales person, or the like may view the suggested topic 138and relevant information about it (such as indicators of its similarityor relevancy as described elsewhere herein) and create content, such asweb pages, emails, customer chats, and other online presence content 160on behalf of the enterprise. Within the interface 152, the resultinggenerated online presence content 160 may be linked to the primaryonline content object 102, such that the primary online content object102 and one or more generated online presence objects 160 form a clusterof semantically related content, such that visitors to any one of theobjects 102, 160 may be driven, including by the links, to the otherobjects 102, 160. In particular, the platform 100 enables the driving ofviewers who are interested in the topics that differentiate theenterprise to the online presence content, such as the main web pages,of the enterprise. Performance of the topics may be tracked, such as ina reporting and analytics system 180, such that performance-basedsuggestions may be provided by the suggestion generator 134, such as bysuggesting more suggested topics 138 that are similar to ones that havedriven increases in traffic to the primary online content object 102.

The system and method are then capable of projection of the crawled,stored and processed information, using the present processing hardware,networking and computing infrastructure so as to generatespecially-formatted vectors, e.g., a single vector or multiple vectors.The vector or vectors may be generated according to a Word2vec modelused to produce word embeddings in a multi-layer neural network orsimilar arrangement. Those skilled in the art may appreciate thatfurther reconstruction of linguistic contexts of words are possible bytaking a body of content (e.g., language words) to generate suchvector(s) in a suitable vector space. Said vectors may further indicateuseful associations of words and topical information based on theirproximity to one another in said vector space. Vectors based on othercontent information (e.g., phrases or documents, which can be referredto as Phrase2vec or Document2vec herein) may also be employed in someembodiments. Documents or pages having similar semantic meaning would beconceptually proximal to one another according to the present model. Inthis way, new terms or phrases or documents may be compared againstknown data in the data store of the system and generate a similarity,relevance, or nearness quantitative metric. Cosine similarity or othermethods can be employed as part of this nearness determination. Thesimilarity may be translated into a corresponding score in someembodiments. In other aspects, said score may be used as an input toanother process or another optional part of the present system. In yetother aspects, the output may be presented in a user interface presentedto a human or machine. The score can further be presented as a“relevance” metric. Human-readable suggestions may be automaticallygenerated by the system and method and provided as outputs, output data,or output signals in a processor-driven environment such as a moderncomputing architecture. The suggestions may in some aspects provide acontent context model for guiding promoters (e.g., marketers) towards abest choice of topical content to prepare and put up on their web sites,including suitable and relevant recommendations for work product such asarticles and blog posts and social media materials that would promotethe promoters' main topics or subjects of interest or sell the productsand services of the marketers using the system and method.

In an aspect, the present system and method allows for effectiverecommendations to promoters that improve the link structure betweenexisting content materials such as online pages, articles and posts. Inanother aspect, this allows for better targeting of efforts of apromoter based on the desired audience of the efforts, including largegroups, small groups or even individuals.

Implementations of the present system and method can vary as would beappreciated by those skilled in the art. For example, the system andmethod can be used to create a content strategy tool using processinghardware and special machine-readable instructions executing thereon.Consider as a simple illustrative example that a promoter desires tobest market a fitness product, service or informational topic. This canbe considered as a primary or “core topic” about which other secondarytopics can be generated, which are in turn coupled to or related to thecore topic. For example, weight lifting, dieting, exercise or othersecondary topics may be determined to have a favorable context-basedrelevance to the core topic. Specific secondary sub-topics about weightlifting routines, entitled, e.g., ‘Best weight lifting routines for men’or ‘How to improve your training form’ (and so on) may be each turnedinto a blog post that links back to the core topic web page.

In some embodiments, when a user uses the content strategy tool of thepresent system and method the user may be prompted to select or enter acore (primary) topic based on the user's own knowledge or the user'sfield of business. The tool may them use this, along with a large amountof crawled online content that was analyzed, or along with extractedinformation resulting from such crawling of online content and priorstored search criteria and results, which is now context-based, tovalidate a topic against various criteria.

In an example, topics are suggested (or entered topics are rated) basedon the topics' competitiveness, popularity, and/or relevance. Thoseskilled in the art may appreciate other similar criteria which can beused as metrics in the suggestion or evaluation of a topic.

Competitiveness can comprise a measure of how likely a domain (Webdomain) would be ranked on “Page 1” for a particular term or phrase. Thelower the percentile ranking, the more difficult it is to rank for thatterm or phrase (e.g., as determined by a Moz rank indicating a site'sauthority).

Popularity as a metric is a general measure of a term or phrase'speriodic (e.g., monthly) search volume from various major searchengines. The greater this percentage, the more popular the term orphrase is.

Relevance as a metric generally indicates how close a term or phrase isto other content put up on the user's site or domain. The lower therelevance, the further away the term or phrase is from what the coretopic of the site or domain is. This can be automatically determined bya crawler that crawls the site or domain to determine its main or coretopic of interest to consumers. If relevance is offered as a service byembodiments of the present system and method a score can be presentedthrough a user or machine interface indicating how relevant the newinput text is to an existing content pool.

Timeliness of the content is another aspect that could be used to drivecontent suggestions or ratings with respect to a core topic. Forexample, a recent-ness (recency) metric may be used in addition to thosegiven above for the sake of illustration of embodiments of the systemand method.

Therefore, analysis and presentation of information indicating crossrelationships between topics becomes effective under the present scheme.In embodiments, these principles may be additionally or alternativelyapplied to email marketing or promotional campaigns to aid in decisionmaking as to the content of emails sent to respective recipients so asto maximally engage the recipients in the given promotion.

Other possible features include question classification; documentretrieval; passage retrieval; answer processing; and factoid questionanswering.

Note that the present concepts can be carried across languages insofaras an aspect hereof provides for manual or automated translation from afirst language to a second language, and that inputs, results andoutputs of the system can be processed in one or another language, or ina plurality of languages as desired.

FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 are illustrative depictions of exemplarysimplified aspects of the present system, method and tools. Thesedepictions are not meant to be exhaustive or limiting, but are merelyexamples of how some features could be provided to a user of the systemand method.

Some embodiments hereof employ a latent semantic analysis (LSA) model,encoded using data in a data store and programmed instructions and/orprocessing circuitry to generate an output comprising an associationbetween various content by the promoter user of the system and method.LSA being applied here to analyze relationships between a (large) set ofdocuments and the data contained therein. In one embodiment machinelearning may be used to develop said association output or outputs.

FIG. 6 provides a functional block diagram of certain additionaloptional components and elements of the content development platform100, including integration of a customer relationship management system158 with other elements of the platform according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In embodiments, the generated online contentobject 160 may comprise messaging content for a customer interactionthat is managed via a customer relationship management system 158. Inembodiments, the customer relationship management system 158 may includeone or more customer data records 164, such as reflecting data on groupsof customers or individual customers, including demographic data,geographic data, psychographic data, data relating to one or moretransactions, data indicating topics of interest to the customers, datarelating to conversations between agents of the enterprise and thecustomers, data indicating past purchases, interest in particularproducts, brands, or categories, and other customer relationship data.The customer data records 164 may be used by the platform 100 to provideadditional suggested topics 138, to select among suggested topics 138,to modify suggested topics 138, or the like. In embodiments, the CRMsystem 158 may support interactions with a customer, such as through acustomer chat 184, which in embodiments may be edited in the userinterface 152 of the content development and management application 150,such as to allow a writer, such as an inside sales person or marketerwho is engaging in the customer chat 184 with the customer to seesuggested topics 138 that may be of interest to the customer, such asbased on the customer data records 164 and based on relevancy of thetopics to the main differentiators of the enterprise. In embodiments, aconversational agent 182 may be provided within or integrated with theplatform 100, such as for automating one or more conversations betweenthe enterprise and a customer. The conversational agent 182 may takesuggested topics from the suggestion generator 134 to facilitateinitiation of conversations with customers around topics thatdifferentiate the enterprise, such as topics that are semanticallyrelevant to key phrases found in the primary online content object 102.In embodiments, the conversational agent 182 may populate a customerchat 184 in the user interface 152, such as providing seed or draftcontent that a writer for the enterprise can edit.

FIG. 7 provides a detailed functional block diagram of components andelements of a content development platform according to some embodimentsof the present disclosure. In embodiments, the methods and systems mayinclude an automated crawler 104 that crawls the primary online contentobject 102 and storing a set of results from the crawling in a datastorage facility 108. In embodiments, the data storage facility is acloud-based storage facility, such as a simple storage facility (e.g.,an S3™ bucket provided by Amazon™), and/or on a web service platform(e.g., the Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) platform). In embodiments, thedata storage facility is a distributed data storage facility. Inembodiments, the automated crawler 104 crawls one or more domainsassociated with an enterprise customers' content (e.g., the customer'sportal, main web page, or the like) as the primary online content object102 to identify topics already in use on those sites and stores thepages in a data storage facility (e.g., S3™ storage), with metadata in adatabase (e.g., a MySQL database). The content development platform 100may include a parser 110 that parses the stored content from thecrawling activity of the automated crawler 104 and generates a pluralityof key phrases 112 and a content corpus 114 from the primary onlinecontent object 102. The content development platform 100 may include,use, or integrate with one or more of a plurality of models 118 forprocessing at least one of the key phrases 112 and the corpus 114.

In embodiments, the models 118 may include one or more of a word2vecmodel 120, a doc2vec model 122, a latent semantic analysis (LSA)extraction model, an LSA model 124, and a key phrase logistic regressionmodel 128, wherein the processing results in a plurality of contentclusters 130 representing topics within the primary online contentobject 102. In embodiments, the platform 100 may take content for aprimary content object 102, such as a website, and extract a number ofphrases, such as a number of co-located phrases, based on processing then-grams present in the content (e.g., unigrams, bi-grams, tri-grams,tetra-grams, and so on), which may in the LSA model 124, be ranked basedon the extent of presence in the content and based on a vocabulary thatis more broadly used across a more general body of content, such as abroad set of Internet content. This provides a vector representation ofa website within the LSA model 124. Based on crawling with automaticcrawler 104 of over 619 million pages on the public internet (seeking toignore ignoring those pages that are light on content), an LSA model 124has been trained using machine learning, using a training set of morethan 250 million pages, such that the LSA model 124 is trained tounderstand associations between elements of content.

In embodiments, the one or more models 118 include the word2vec model120 or other model (e.g., doc2vec 122 or phrase2vec) that projectscrawled-domain primary online object content 102, such as fromcustomers' domains, into a single vector. In embodiments, the vectorspace is such that documents that contain similar semantic meaning areclose together. The application of the word2vec model 120 and thedoc2vec model 122 to the vector representation of primary content object102 (e.g., website) to draw vectors may result in a content-contextmodel based on co-located phrases. This allows new terms to be comparedagainst that content context database to determine how near it is to theenterprise's existing primary online content objects 102 (e.g.,webpages), such as using cosine similarity. That similarity may then beconverted into a score and displayed through the UI, such as displayingit as a “Relevancy” score. Ultimately, the content context model may beused to give recommendations and guidance for how individuals can choosegood topics to write about, improve the link structure of existingcontent, and target marketing and other efforts based on theiraudiences' individual topic groups of interest. In embodiments, theplurality of models 118 used by the platform may comprise other forms ofmodel for clustering documents and other content based on similarity,such as a latent semantic indexing model, a principle component analysismodel, or the like. In embodiments other similar models may be used,such as a phrase2vec model, or the like.

An objective of the various models 118 is to enable clustering ofcontent, or “topic clusters 168” around relevant key phrases, where thetopic clusters 168 include semantically similar words and phrases(rather than simply linking content elements that share exactly matchingkeywords). Semantic similarity can be determined by calculating vectorsimilarity around key phrases appearing in two elements of content. Inembodiments, topic clusters may be automatically clustered, such as byan auto-clustering engine 172 that manages a set of software jobs thattake web pages from the primary content object 102, use a model 118,such as the LSA model 124 to turn the primary content object 102 into avector representation, project the vector representation on to a space(e.g., a two-dimensional space), perform an affinity propagation thatseeks to find natural groupings among the vectors (representing clustersof ideas within the content), and show the groupings as clusters ofcontent. Once groups are created, a reviewer, such as a marketer orother content developer, can select one or more “centers” within theclusters, such as recognizing a core topic within the marketer's“pillar” content (such as a main web page), which may correspond to theprimary content object 102. Nodes in the cluster that are in closeproximity to the identified centers may represent good additional topicsabout which to develop content or to which to establish links; forexample, topic clusters can suggest an appropriate link structure amongcontent objects managed by an enterprise and with external contentobjects, such as third-party objects, where the link structure is basedon building an understanding of a semantic organization of cluster oftopics and mirroring the other content and architecture of linkssurrounding a primary content object 102 based on the semanticorganization.

The content development platform 100 may include a content cluster datastore 132 for storing the content clusters 130. The content cluster datastore 132 may comprise a MySQL database or other type of database. Thecontent cluster data store 132 may store mathematical relationships,based on the various models 118, between content objects, such as theprimary content object 102 and various other content objects or topics,which, among other things, may be used to determine what pages should bein the same cluster of pages (and accordingly should be linked to eachother). In embodiments, clusters are based on matching semantics betweenphrases, not just matching exact phrases. Thus, new topics can bediscovered by observing topics or subtopics within semantically similarcontent objects in a cluster that are not already covered in a primarycontent object 102. In embodiments, an auto-discovery engine 170 mayprocess a set of topics in a cluster to automatically discoveradditional topics that may be of relevance to parties interested in thecontent of the primary content object 102.

In embodiments, topics within a cluster in the content cluster datastore 132 may be associated with a relevancy score 174 (built from themodels 118), which in embodiments may be normalized to a single numberthat represents the calculated extent of semantic similarity of adifferent topic to the core topic (e.g., the center of a cluster, suchas reflecting the core topic of a primary content object 102, such as amain web page of an enterprise). The relevancy score 174 may be used tofacilitate recommendations or suggestions about additional topics withina cluster that may be relevant for content development.

The content development platform may include a suggestion generator 134for generating, using output from at least one of the models, asuggested topic 138 that is similar to at least one topic among thecontent clusters and for storing the suggested topic 138 and informationregarding the similarity of the suggested topic 138 to at least onecontent cluster 130 in the content cluster data store 132. Suggestedtopics 138 may include sub-topic suggestions, suggestions for additionalcore topics and the like, each based on semantic similarity (such asusing a relevancy score 174 or similar calculation) to content in theprimary content object 102, such as content identified as being at thecenter of a cluster of topics. Suggestions may be generated by using thekeyphrase logistic regression model 128 on the primary content object102, which, among other things, determines, for a given phrase that issimilar to the content in a cluster, how relatively unique the phrase isrelative to a wider body of content, such as all of the websites thathave been crawled across the broader Internet. Thus, through acombination of identifying semantically similar topics in a cluster(e.g., using the word2vec model 120, doc2vec model 122, and LSA model124) and identifying which of those are relatively differentiated (usingthe keyphrase logistic regression model 128), a set of highly relevant,well differentiated topics may be generated, which the suggestiongenerator 134 may process for production of one or more suggested topics138.

In embodiments, the parser 110 uses a parsing machine learning system140 to parse the crawled content. In embodiments, the machine learningsystem 140 iteratively applies a set of weights to input data, whereinthe weights are adjusted based on a parameter of success, wherein theparameter of success is based on the success of suggested topics 138 inthe online presence of an enterprise. In embodiments, the machinelearning system is provided with a parser training data set 142 that iscreated based on human analysis of the crawled content.

In embodiments, the platform 100 uses a clustering machine learningsystem 144 to cluster content into the content clusters 130. Inembodiments, the clustering machine learning system 144 iterativelyapplies a set of weights to input data, wherein the weights are adjustedbased on a parameter of success and the parameter of success is based onthe success of suggested topics in the online presence of an enterprise.In embodiments, the clustering machine learning system 144 is providedwith a training data set that is created based on human clustering of aset of content topics.

In embodiments, the suggestion generator 134 uses a suggestion machinelearning system 148 to suggest topics. In embodiments, the suggestionmachine learning system 148 iteratively applies a set of weights toinput data, wherein the weights are adjusted based on a parameter ofsuccess, and the parameter of success is based on the success ofsuggested topics in the online presence of an enterprise. Inembodiments, the suggestion machine learning system 148 is provided witha training data set that is created based on human creation of a set ofsuggested topics.

In embodiments, the methods and systems disclosed herein may furtherinclude a content development and management application 150 fordeveloping a strategy for development of online presence content, theapplication 150 accessing the content cluster data store 132 and havinga set of tools for exploring and selecting suggested topics 138 foronline presence content generation. In embodiments, the application 150provides a list of suggested topics 138 that are of highest semanticrelevance for an enterprise based on the parsing of the primary onlinecontent object. In embodiments, the methods and systems may furtherinclude a user interface 152 of the application 150 that presents asuggestion, wherein the generated suggestion is presented with anindicator of the similarity 154 of the suggested topic 138 to a topic inthe content cluster 130 as calculated by at least one of the models 118.

In embodiments, the content development and management application 150may include a cluster user interface 178 portion of the user interface152 in which, after a primary content object 102 has been brought onboard to the content development platform 100, a cluster of linkedtopics can be observed, including core topics in the primary contentobject 102 and various related topics. The cluster user interface 178may allow a user, such as a sales or marketing professional, to explorea set of topics (e.g., topics that are highly relevant to a brand of theenterprise and related topics) which, in embodiments, may be presentedwith a relevancy score 174 or other measure of similarity, as well aswith other information, such as search volume information and the like.In embodiments, the cluster user interface 178 or other portion of theuser interface 152 may allow a user to select and attach one or moretopics or content objects, such as indicating which topics should beconsidered at the core for the enterprise, for a brand, or for aparticular project. Thus, the cluster framework embodied in the clusteruser interface 178 allows a party to frame the context of what topicsthe enterprise wishes to be known for online (such as for the enterpriseas a whole or for a brand of the enterprise).

The content development and management application 150 may comprise acontent strategy tool that encourages users to structure content inclusters based on the notion that topics are increasingly more relevantthat keywords, so that enterprises should focus on owning a contenttopic, rather than going after individual keywords. Each topic cluster168 may have a “core topic,” such as implemented as a web page on thatcore topic. For example, on a personal trainer's website, the core topicmight be “weightlifting.” Around those core topics 106 should besubtopics (in this example, this might include things like “bestweightlifting routines” or “how to improve your weightlifting form”),each of which should be made into a blog post that links back to thecore topic page.

When users use the content development and management application 150,or content strategy tool, the user may be prompted to enter a topicbased on the user's own knowledge of the enterprise. The contentdevelopment and management application 150 or tool may also useinformation gleaned by crawling domains of the enterprise with theautomated crawler 104, such as to identify existing topic clusters ontheir site (i.e., the primary online content object 102). For eachidentified core topic, the topic may be validated based on one or moremetrics or criteria, (e.g., competitiveness, popularity, relevancy, orthe like). In embodiments, a relevancy metric may be determined based oncosine similarity between a topic and the core topic, and/or based onvarious other sources of website analytics data. Competitiveness maycomprise a measure of how likely a domain or primary online contentobject 102 is to rank highly, such as on a first page of search engineresults, for a particular word, phrase, or term. The lower thepercentage on this metric, the harder it will be to achieve a high rankfor that term. This may be determined by a source like MozRank™(provided by Moz™), a PageRank™ (provided by Google™), or other rankingmetric, reflecting the primary online content object's 102 domainauthority, absent other factors. Popularity may comprise a generalmeasure of a topic's monthly search volume or similar activity level,such as from various search engines. The higher the percentage, the morepopular the term. This may be obtained from a source like SEMRush™, suchas with data in broad ranges of 1-1000, 1000-10000, etc. Relevancy maycomprise a metric of close a topic, phrase, term or the like to othercontent, such as topic already covered in other domains of a user, orthe like. The lower the relevancy, the further away a given term is fromwhat an enterprise is known for, such as based on comparison to a crawlby the automated crawler 104 of the enterprise's website and otherdomains. Relevancy may be provided or supported by the content contextmodels 118 as noted throughout this disclosure.

As the models 118 analyze more topics, the models learn and improve,such that increasingly accurate measures may be provided as relevancyand the like. Once the user has selected a topic, the user may beprompted to identify subtopics related to that topic. Also, the platform100 may recommend or auto-fill subtopics that have been validated basedon their similarity to the core topic and based on other scoringmetrics. When the user has filled out a cluster of topics, the platform100 may alert the user to suggested links connecting each subtopic pageto a topic page, including recommending adding links where they arecurrently absent. The content development and management application 150may also allow customers to track the performance of each cluster,including reporting on various metrics used by customers to analyzeindividual page performance. The content development and managementapplication 150 or tool may thus provide several major improvements overour current tools, including a better “information architecture” tounderstand the relationship between pieces of content, built-in keywordvalidation, and holistic analysis of how each cluster of topicsperforms.

In embodiments, the user interface 152 facilitates generation ofgenerated online presence content 160 related to the suggested topic138. In embodiments, the user interface 152 includes at least one of keywords and key phrases that represent the suggested topic 138, which maybe used to prompt the user with content for generation of onlinepresence content. In embodiments, the generated online presence contentis at least one of website content, mobile application content, a socialmedia post, a customer chat, a frequently asked question item, a productdescription, a service description and a marketing message. Inembodiments, the generated online presence content may be linked to theprimary content object 102, such as to facilitate traffic between thegenerated online presence content and the primary content object 102 andto facilitate discovery of the primary content object 102 and thegenerated online presence content 160 by search engines 162. The userinterface 152 for generating content may include a function forexploring phrases for potential inclusion in generated online presencecontent 160; for example, a user may input a phrase, and the platform100 may use a relevancy score 174 or other calculation to indicate adegree of similarity. For example, if a topic is only 58% similar to acore topic, then a user might wish to find something more similar. Userinterface elements, such as colors, icons, animated elements and thelike may help orient a user to favorable topics and help avoidunfavorable topics.

In embodiments, the application 150 may facilitate creation and editingof content, such as blog posts, chats, conversations, messages, websitecontent, and the like, and the platform may parse the phrases written inthe content to provide a relevancy score 174 as the content is written.For example, as a blog is being written, the marketer may see whetherphrases that are being written are more or less relevant to a primarycontent object 102 that has been selected and attached to an enterprise,a project, or a brand within the platform 100. Thus, the contentdevelopment and management application 150 may steer the content creatortoward more relevant topics, and phrases that represent those topics.This may include prompts and suggestions from the suggestion generator134. The user interface 152 may include elements for assisting the userto optimize content, such as optimizing for a given reading level andthe like. The user interface 152 may provide feedback, such asconfirming that the right key phrases are contained in a post, so thatit is ready to be posted.

In embodiments, the application 150 for developing a strategy fordevelopment of generated online presence content 160 may access contentcluster data store 132 and may include various tools for exploring andselecting suggested topics 138 for generating the generated onlinepresence content 160. In embodiments 150, the application 150 mayfurther access the content of the customer relationship management (CRM)system 158. In embodiments, the application 150 includes a userinterface 152 for developing content regarding a suggested topic 138 forpresentation in a communication to a customer, wherein selection of asuggested topic 138 for presentation to a customer is based at least inpart on a semantic relationship between the suggested topic asdetermined by at least one of the models 118 and at least one customerdata record 164 relating to the customer stored in the customerrelationship management system 158.

The platform 100 may include, be integrated with, or feed a reportingand analytics system 180 that may provide, such as in a dashboard orother user interface, such as, in a non-limiting example, in the userinterface 152 of the content development and management application 150,various reports and analytics 188, such as various measures ofperformance of the platform 100 and of the generated online contentobject 160 produced using the platform 100, such as prompted bysuggestions of topics. As search engines have increasingly obscuredinformation about how sites and other content objects are ranked (suchas by declining to provide keywords), it has become very important todevelop alternative measures of engagement. In embodiments, the platform100 may track interactions across the life cycle of engagement of anenterprise with a customer, such as during an initial phase ofattracting interest, such as through marketing or advertising that maylead to a visit to a website or other primary online content object 102,during a process of lead generation, during conversations or engagementwith the customer (such as by chat functions, conversational agents, orthe like), during the process of identifying relevant needs and productsthat may meet those needs, during the delivery or fulfillment of ordersand the provision of related services, and during any post-salefollow-up, including to initiate further interactions. By integrationwith the CRM system 158 of an enterprise, the platform 100 may providemeasures that indicate what other activities of or relating tocustomers, such as generation of leads, visits to web pages, traffic andclickstream data relating to activity on a web page, links to content,e-commerce and other revenue generated from a page, and the like, wererelated to a topic, such as a topic for which a generated online contentobject 160 was created based on a suggestion generated in the platform100. Thus, by integration of a content development and managementapplication 150 and a CRM system 158, revenue can be linked to generatedcontent 160 and presented in the reporting and analytics system 180.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a user interface of the reporting andanalytics system 180.

In general, a wide range of analytics may be aggregated by topic cluster(such as a core topic and related topics linked to the core topic in thecluster), rather than by web page, so that activities involved ingenerating the content in the cluster can be attributed with the revenueand other benefits that are generated as a result. Among these areelements tracked in a CRM system 158, such as contact events, customers(such as prospective customers, leads, actual customers, and the like),deals, revenue, profit, and tasks.

In embodiments, the platform 100 may proactively recommend core topics,such as based on crawling and scraping existing site content of anenterprise. Thus, also provided herein is the auto-discovery engine 170,including various methods, systems, components, modules, services,processes, applications, interfaces and other elements for automateddiscovery of topics for interactions with customers of an enterprise,including methods and systems that assist various functions and roleswithin an enterprise in finding appropriate topics to draw customersinto relevant conversations and to extend the conversations in a waythat is relevant to the enterprise and to each customer. Automateddiscovery of relevant content topics may support processes and workflowsthat require insight into what topics should be written about, such asduring conversations with customers. Such processes and workflows mayinclude development of content by human workers, as well as automatedgeneration of content, such as within automated conversational agents,bots, and the like. Automated discovery may include identifying conceptsthat are related by using a combination of analysis of a relevant itemof text (such as core content of a website, or the content of an ongoingconversation) with an analysis of linking (such as linking of relatedcontent). In embodiments, this may be performed with awareness at abroad scale of the nature of content on the Internet, such that new,related topics can be automatically discovered that furtherdifferentiate an enterprise, while remaining relevant to its primarycontent. The new topics can be used within a wide range of enterprisefunctions, such as marketing, sales, services, public relations,investor relations and other functions, including functions that involvethe entire lifecycle of the engagement of a customer with an enterprise.

As noted above, customers increasingly expect more personalizedinteractions with enterprises, such as via context-relevant chats thatproperly reflect the history of a customer's relationship with theenterprise. Chats, whether undertaken by human workers, or increasinglyby intelligent conversational agents, are involved across all of thecustomer-facing activities of an enterprise, including marketing, sales,public relations, services, and others. Content development and strategyis relevant to all of those activities, and effective conversationalcontent, such as managed in a chat or by a conversational agent 182,needs to relate to relevant topics while also reflecting informationabout the customer, such as demographic, psychographic and geographicinformation, as well as information about past interactions with theenterprise. Thus, integration of the content development and managementplatform 100 with the CRM system 158 may produce appropriate topicswithin the historical context of the customer and the customer'sengagement with the enterprise. For example, in embodiments, tickets ortasks may be opened in a CRM system 158, such as prompting creation ofcontent, such as based on customer-relevant suggestions, via the contentdevelopment and management application 150, such as content for aconversation or chat with a customer (including one that may be managedby a conversational agent 182 or bot), content for a marketing messageor offer to the customer, content to drive customer interest in a webpage, or the like. In embodiments, a customer conversation or customerchat 184 may be managed through the content development and managementapplication 150, such as by having the chat occur within the userinterface 152, such that an agent of the enterprise, like an insidesales person, can engage in the chat by writing content, while seeingsuggested topics 138, indicators of relevance or similarity 154 and thelike. In this context, relevance indicators can be based on scores notedabove (such as reflecting the extent of relevance to core topics thatdifferentiate the enterprise), as well as topics that are of interest tothe customer, such as determined by processing information, such as onhistorical conversations, transactions, or the like, stored in the CRMsystem 158. In embodiments, to facilitate increased, the customer chat184 may be populated with seed or draft content created by an automatedconversational agent 182, so that a human agent can edit the contentinto a final version for the customer interaction.

In embodiments, the models 118 (collectively referred to as one or morecontent context models), and the platform 100 more generally, may enablea number of capabilities and benefits, including helping users come upwith ideas of new topics to write about based on a combination of thecontent cluster data store 132, a graph of topics for the site or othercontent of the enterprise, and one or more analytics. This may helpwriters find gaps in content that should be effective, but that are notcurrently written about. The models 118, and platform 100 may alsoenable users to come up with ideas about new articles, white papers andother content based on effective topics. The models 118, and platform100 may also enable users to understand effectiveness of content at thetopic level, so that a user can understand which topics are engagingpeople and which aren't. This may be analyzed for trends over time, so auser can see if a topic is getting more or less engagement. The models118, and platform 100 may also enable users to apply information abouttopics to at the level of the individual contact record, such as in thecustomer relationship management system 158, to help users understandwith what content a specific person engages. For example, for a user“Joe,” the platform 100, by combining content development and managementwith customer relationship management, may understand whether Joe isengaging more in “cardio exercise” or “weight lifting.” Rather than onlylooking at the aggregate level, user may at the individual level forrelevant topics. Development of content targeted to an individual'stopics of interest may be time-based, such as understanding what contenthas recently been engaged with and whether preferences are changing overtime.

The models 118, and platform 100 may also enable looking at crossrelationships between topics. For example, analytics within the platform100 and on engagement of content generated using the platform 100 mayindicate that people who engage frequently with a “cardio” topic alsoengage frequently with a “running” topic. If so, the platform 100 mayoffer suggested topics that are interesting to a specific person basedon identifying interest in one topic and inferring interest in others.

The models 118, and platform 100 may also enable development of emailcontent, such as based on understanding the topic of the content of anemail, an email campaign, or the like. This may include understandingwhich users are engaging with which content, and using that informationto determine which emails, or which elements of content within emails,are most likely to be engaging to specific users.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface for reporting information relatingto online content generated using the content development and managementplatform. Various indicators of success, as noted throughout thisdisclosure, may be presented, such as generated by the reporting andanalytics systems 180.

FIG. 9 depicts an embodiment of a user interface in which activityresulting from the use of the platform is reported to a marketer orother user. Among other metrics that are described herein, the userinterface can report on what customers, such as ones to be entered intoor already tracked in the CRM system, have had a first session ofengagement with content, such as a web page, as a result of the contentstrategy, such as where the customers arrive via a link contained in asub-topic or other topic linked to a core topic as described herein.

The present concepts can be applied to modern sophisticated searchingmethods and systems with improved success. For example, in acontext-sensitive or personalized search request, the results may beinfluenced by one or more of the following: location, time of day,format of query, device type from which the request is made, andcontextual cues.

In an embodiment, a topical cluster comprising a core topic and severalsub-topics can be defined and refined using the following generalizedprocess: 1. Mapping out of several (e.g., five to ten) of the topicsthat a target person (e.g., customer) is interested in; 2. Group thetopics into one or more generalized (core) topic into which thesub-topics could be fit; 3. Build out each of the core topics withcorresponding sub-topics using keywords or other methods; 4. Map outcontent ideas that align with each of the core topics and correspondingsub-topics; 5. Validate each idea with industry and competitiveresearch; and 6. Create, measure and refine the data and models andcontent discovered from the above process. These steps are not intendedto be limiting or exhaustive, as those skilled in the art mightappreciate alternate or additional steps suiting a given application.Some of the above steps may also be omitted or combined into one step,again, to suit a given application at hand.

In some embodiments, a system and method are provided that can be usedto provide relevancy scores (or quantitative metrics) as a service.Content generation suggestions can also be offered as a service usingthe present system and method, including synonyms, long tail key wordsand enrichment by visitor analytics in some instances.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example environment of a directed content system200. In embodiments, the directed content system 200 may be configuredto generate “directed content.” As used herein, directed content mayrefer to any textual, audio, and/or visual content that is at leastpartially personalized for an intended recipient based on informationderived by the directed content system 200. In embodiments, the directedcontent system 200 may be configured to identify recipients that arerelevant to a client. As used herein, a client may refer to anenterprise (e.g., a company, a non-profit organization, a governmentalentity, and the like) or an individual. A user affiliated with a clientmay access the directed content system 200 using a client device 260.The directed content system 200 may identify one or more intendedrecipients to which directed content may be sent to and/or may generatedirected content to one or more of the intended recipients. The directedcontent system 200 may then transmit the directed content to theintended recipients.

In embodiments, the directed content system 200 may include, but is notlimited to: a crawling system 202 that implements a set of crawlers thatfind and retrieve information from an information network (e.g., theInternet); an information extraction system 204 that identifiesentities, events, and/or relationships between entities or events fromthe information retrieved by the crawling system 202; one or moreproprietary databases 208 that store information relating toorganizations or individuals that use the directed content system 200;one or more knowledge graphs 210 representing specific types of entities(e.g., businesses, people, places, products), relationships betweenentities, the types of those relationships, relevant events, and/orrelationships between events and entities; a machine learning system 212that learns/trains classification models that are used to extractevents, entities, and/or relationships, scoring models that are used toidentify intended recipients of directed content, and/or models that areused to generate directed models; a lead scoring system 214 that scoresone or more organizations and/or individuals with respect to a contentgeneration task, the lead scoring system referencing information in theknowledge graph; and a content generation system 216 that generatescontent of a communication to a recipient in response to a request froma client to generate directed content pertaining to a particularobjective, wherein the recipient is an individual for which the leadingscoring system has determined a threshold level of relevance to theobjective of a client. The directed content system 200 uses theunderstanding from the machine learning system 212 to generate thedirected content.

In embodiments, the methods and systems disclosed herein include methodsand systems for pulling information at scale from one or moreinformation sources. In embodiments, the crawling system 202 may obtaininformation from external information sources 230 accessible via acommunication network 280 (e.g., the Internet), a private network, aproprietary database 208 (such as a content management system, acustomer relationship management database, a sales database, a marketingdatabase, a service management database, or the like), or other suitableinformation sources. Such methods and systems may include one or morecrawlers, spiders, clustering systems, proxies, services, brokers,extractors and the like, using various information systems andprotocols, such as Representational State Transfer (REST), Simple ObjectAccess Protocol (SOAP), Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Real Time OperatingSystem (RTOS) protocol, and the like. Such methods, systems, components,services and protocols are collectively referred to herein as“crawlers,” or a “set of crawlers,” except where context indicatesotherwise.

In embodiments, the information extraction system 204 may pull relevantinformation from each of a variety of data sources (referred to in somecases herein as streams), parse each stream to figure out the type ofstream, and optionally apply one or more explicit parsers to furtherparse specific streams based on the type or structure of the stream.Some streams with defined, static structures allow for direct extractionof information of known types, which can be inserted into the knowledgegraph or other data resource without much further processing. In othercases, such as understanding what event happened given a headline of anews article, more processing is required to develop an understanding ofthe event that can be stored for further use. Certain events are ofparticular interest to sales and marketing professionals because theytend to be associated with changes in an organization that may increaseor decrease the likelihood that an entity or individual will beinterested in a particular offering. These include changes inmanagement, especially in “C-level” executives like the CEO, CTO, CFO,CMO, CIO, CSO or the like and officer-level executives like thePresident or the VP of engineering, marketing or finance, which mayindicate directional changes that tend to lead to increased or decreasedpurchasing. In embodiments, a machine learning system 212 may beconfigured to learn to parse unstructured data sources to understandthat a specific type of event has occurred, such as an event that isrelevant to the likelihood that an organization or individual will beinterested in a particular offering. Relevant types of events for whichparticular machine learning systems 212 may be so configured mayinclude, in addition to changes in management, attendance at trade showsor other industry events, participation in industry organizations likeconsortia, working groups and standards-making bodies, financial andother events that indicate growth or shrinking of a business, as well asother events described throughout this disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of the crawling system 202 and theinformation extraction system 204 maintaining a knowledge graph 210,whereby the crawling system 202 and the information extraction system204 may operate to obtain information from one or more informationsources 230 and to update the knowledge graph 210 based on the obtainedinformation. In FIG. 11, a set of crawlers 220 obtain (e.g., crawlingand/or downloading) information relating to entities and events fromvarious information sources 230. In embodiments, the set of crawlers 220are controlled/directed by the crawling system 202 to identify documentsthat may contain information regarding entities, events, andrelationships. Types of entities include, but are not limited to,organizations (e.g., companies), people, governments, cities, states,countries, dates, populations, markets, sectors, industries, roles, andproducts. Information about organizations may be obtained from, forexample, company news articles, job postings, SEC filings,organizational charts, press releases, and any other digital documentsrelating to organizations such as patents, trademarks, blog posts,mentions in forums, market reports, internal documents, companywebsites, and social media. Information about people may be obtainedfrom, for example, resumes (e.g., education, prior experience),scientific publications, patents, and any other digital documents suchas contact information, news mentions, social media pages, blog posts,and personal websites.

In embodiments, the crawlers 220 crawl Internet websites to obtaindocuments. Internet websites may include, but are not limited to, sitesthat include company news articles, job postings, SEC filings, patents,trademark registrations, copyrights, blog posts, mentions in forums,market reports, internal documents, company websites, and social media,as well as sites that include information about people, which mayinclude, but are not limited to, education (such as schools attended,degrees obtained, programs completed, locations of schooling and thelike), prior experience (including job experience, projects,participation on boards and committees, participating in industrygroups, and the like), scientific publications, patents, contactinformation, news mentions, social media, blog posts, and personalwebsites. Information may be extracted from websites via a variety oftechniques, including but not limited to explicit selection of specificdata fields (e.g., from .JSON), automatic extraction of data from rawwebsite code (e.g., from HTML or XML code), or automatic extraction ofdata from images (e.g., using OCR or image classifiers) or video ofwebsites (e.g., using video classifiers). Crawlers 220 may employvarious methods to simulate the behavior of human users, including butnot limited to simulating computer keyboard keystrokes, simulatingcomputer mouse movement, and simulating interaction with a browserenvironment. Crawlers 220 may learn to simulate interaction withwebsites by learning and replicating patterns in the behavior of realwebsite users.

In operation, the crawling system 202 may seed one or more crawlers 220with a set of resource identifiers (e.g., uniform resource identifiers(URIs), uniform resource locators (URLs), application resourceidentifiers, and the like). A crawler 220 may iteratively obtaindocuments corresponding to the seeded resource identifier (e.g., an HTMLdocument). In particular, a crawler 220 may parse the obtained documentsfor links contained in the documents that include additional resourceidentifiers. A crawler 220 may then obtain additional documentscorresponding to the newly seeded resource identifiers that wereidentified from the parsed documents. A crawler 220 may continue in thismanner until the crawler does not find any new links. The crawler 220may provide any obtained documents to the crawling system 202, which canin turn dedupe any cumulative documents. The crawling system 202 mayoutput the obtained documents to the information extraction system 204.

In embodiments, the information extraction system 204 may receivedocuments obtained from the crawlers 220 via the crawling system 202.The information extraction system 204 may extract text and any otherrelevant data that represents information about a company, anindividual, an event, or the like. Of particular interest to users ofthe directed content platform 200 disclosed herein, such as marketersand salespeople, are documents that contain information about eventsthat indicate the direction or intent of a company and/or direction orintent of an individual. These documents may include, among many others,blog posts from or about a company; articles from business news sourceslike Reuters™, CB Insights™ CNBC™ Bloomberg™, and others; securitiesfilings (e.g., 10K filings in the US); patent, trademark and/orcopyright filings; job postings; and the like. The informationextraction system 204 may maintain and update a knowledge graph 210based on the extracted information, as well as any additionalinformation that may be interpolated, predicted, inferred, or otherwisederived from the extracted information and/or a proprietary database208.

In embodiments, the information extraction system 204 (e.g., the entityextraction system 224 and the event extraction system 224) may discoverand make use of patterns in language to extract and/or deriveinformation relating to entities, events, and relationships. Thesepatterns may be defined in advance and/or may be learned by the system200 (e.g., the information extraction system 204 and/or the machinelearning system 212). The information extraction system 204 may identifya list of words (and sequences of words) and/or values contained in eachreceived document. In embodiments, the information extraction system 204may use the language patterns to extract various forms of information,including but not limited to entities, entity attributes, relationshipsbetween respective entities and/or respective events, events, eventtypes, attributes of events from the obtained documents. The informationextraction system 204 may utilize natural language processing and/ormachine learned classification models (e.g., neural networks) toidentify entities, events, and relationships from one or more parseddocuments. For example, a news article headline may include the text“Company A pleased to announce deal to acquire Company B.” In thisexample, an entity classification models may be able to extract “CompanyA” and “Company B” as business organization entities because theclassification model may have learned that the term “deal to acquire” isa language pattern that is typically associated with two companies.Furthermore, an event classification model may identify a “companyacquisition event” based on the text because the event classificationmodel may have learned that the term “deal to acquire” is closelyassociated with “company acquisition events.” Furthermore, the eventclassification model may rely on the terms “Company A” and “Company B”to strengthen the classification, especially if both Company A andCompany B are both entities that are known to the system 200. Inembodiments, the information extraction system 204 may derive newrelationships between two or more entities from a newly identifiedevent. For example, in response to the news article indicating Company Ahas acquired Company B, the information extraction system 204 may infera new relationship that Company A owns Company B. In this example, anatural language processor may process the text to determine thatCompany A is the acquirer and Company B is the acquisition. Using theevent classification of “company acquisition event” and the results ofthe natural language processing, the information extraction module 204may infer that Company B now owns Company A. The information extractionsystem 204 may extract additional information from the news article,such as a date of the acquisition.

In some embodiments, the information extraction system 204 may rely on acombination of documents to extract entities, events, and relationships.For example, in response to the combination of i) a publically availableresume of Person X indicating that Person X works at Company C (e.g.,from a LinkedIn® page of Person X); and ii) a press release issued byCompany B that states in the body text “Company B has recently addedPerson X as its new CTO,” the information extraction system 204 mayextract the entities Person X, Company B, Company C, and CTO. The nameof Person X and Company C may be extracted from the resume based onlanguage patterns associated with resumes, while the names of Company Band Person A, and the role CTO may be extracted from the press releasebased on a parsing and natural language processing of the sentencequoted above. Furthermore, the information extraction system 204 mayclassify two events from the combination of documents based on naturallanguage processing and a rules-based inference approach. First, theinformation extraction module 204 may classify a “hiring event” based onthe patterns of text from the quoted sentence. Secondly, the informationextraction module 204 may infer a “leaving event” with respect toCompany C and Person X based on an inference that if a person workingfor a first company is hired by another company, then the person haslikely left the first company. Thus, from the combination of documentsdescribed above, the information extraction module 204 may infer thatPerson X has left Company C (a first event) and that Company B has hiredPerson X (a second event). Furthermore, in this example, the informationextraction module 204 may infer updated relationships, such as Person Xno longer works for Company C and Person X now works for Company B as aCTO.

In some embodiments, the information extraction system 204 may utilizeone or more proprietary databases 208 to assist in identifying entities,events, and/or relationships. In embodiments, the proprietary databases208 may include one or more databases that power a content relationshipmanagement system (not shown), where the database stores structured datarelating to leads, customers, products, and/or other data relating to anorganization or individual. This structured data may indicate, forexample, names of customer companies and potential customer companies,contact points at customer companies and potential customer companies,employees of a company, when a sale was made to a company (orindividual) by another company, emails that were sent to a particularlead from a company and dates of the emails, and other relevant datapertaining to a CRM. In these embodiments, the information extractionsystem 204 may utilize the data stored in the proprietary databases 208to identify entities, relationships, and/or events; to confirm entities,relationships, or events; and/or to refute identifications of entities,relationships, and/or events.

In embodiments, the entity extraction system 224 parses and deriveentities, entity types, entity attributes, and entity relationships intoa structured representation based on the received documents. The entityextraction system 224 may employ natural language processing, entityrecognition, inference engines, and/or entity classification models toextract entities, entity types, entity attributes, entity relationships,and relationship metadata (e.g., dates which the relationship wascreated). In embodiments, the event extraction system 226 may use knownparsing techniques to parse a document into individual words andsequences of words. The event extraction system 226 may employ naturallanguage processing and entity recognition techniques to determinewhether any known entities are described in a document. In embodiments,the event extraction system 226 may utilize a classification model incombination with natural language processing and/or an inference engineto discover new entities, the entities respective types, relationshipsbetween entities, and the respective types of relationships. Inembodiments, the entity extraction system 224 may extract entityattributes from the documents using natural language processing and/oran inference engine. In embodiments, the inference engine may compriseconditional logic that identifies entity attributes (e.g., If/Thenstatements that correspond to different entity attributes andrelationships). For example, the conditional logic may define rules forinferring an employer of an individual, a position of an individual, auniversity of an individual, a customer of an organization, a locationof an individual or organization, a product sold by an organization, andthe like. The entity extraction system 224 may employ additional oralternative strategies to identify and classify entities and theirrespective relationships.

In embodiments, the event extraction system 226 is configured to parseand derive information relating to events and how those events relate toparticular entities. For example, news articles, press releases, and/orother documents obtained from other information sources may be fed tothe event extraction system 226, which may identify entities referencedin the documents based on the information contained in the news articlesand other documents. The event extraction system 226 may be furtherconfigured to classify the events according to different event types(and subtypes). The event extraction system 226 may be configured toextract event attributes, such as from the headline and the body of anews article or another document, such as a press release, resume, SECfiling, trademark registration, court filings, and the like. Event typesmay include, but are not limited to, mergers and acquisitions, clientwins, partnerships, workforce reductions or expansions, executiveannouncements, bankruptcies, opening and closing of facilities, stockmovements, changes in credit rating, distribution of dividends, insiderselling, financial results, analyst expectations, funding events,security and data breaches, regulatory and legal actions, productreleases and recalls, product price changes, project initiatives, budgetand operations changes, changes in name or contact, changes in howproducts and services are represented or described, award wins,conference participations, sponsoring activities, new job postings,promotions, layoffs, and/or charitable donations. Examples of eventattributes may include entities that are connected to the event, atime/date when the event occurred, a date when the event occurred, ageographic area where the event occurred (if applicable), and the like.The event extraction system 226 may employ event classification models,natural language processing, and/or an inference engine to identify andclassify events. In embodiments, the event extraction system 226 mayreceive entity information, including entity values (e.g. a name of aperson or company, a job title, a state name) and entity types extractedby the entity extraction system 224 to assist in the eventclassification. In embodiments, an event classification model mayreceive entity information along with the features of a document toidentify and classify events. Drawing from the example of Company Aacquiring Company B, an event classification model may receive theentity types of Company A and Company B, the features of the document(e.g., results of parsing and/or natural language processing), as wellas a source of the document (e.g. news article from a business focusedpublication) to determine that the sentence fragment “a deal to acquire”corresponds to a company acquisition event, as opposed a real propertypurchase event or a sports trade event (both of which may also correlateto “a deal to acquire”). The event extraction system 226 may employadditional or alternative strategies to identify and classify events.

In embodiments, the information extraction system 204 structures theinformation into structured representations of respective, entities,relationships, and events. In embodiments, the information extractionsystem 204 updates the knowledge graph 210 with the structuredrepresentations.

FIG. 12 is a visual representation of a portion of an example knowledgegraph 210 representation. In embodiments structured representations inthe knowledge graph may be represented by nodes and edges. In theillustrated example, the knowledge graph 210 includes entity nodes 252that represent entities (e.g., companies, people, places, roles, and thelike). In the example, the edges 254 that connect entity nodes 252represent relationships between the entities represented by the entitynodes 252 connected by a respective edge 254.

In embodiments, each entity node 252 in the knowledge graph 210 maycorrespond to a specific entity that is known to the system 200 and/oridentified by the entity extraction module 224. In some embodiments,each entity node is (or points to) an entity record 252 that includesinformation relating to the entity represented by the entity node,including an entity identifier (e.g., a unique value corresponding tothe entity), an entity type of the entity node (e.g., person, company,place, role, product, and the like), an entity value of the entity(e.g., a name of a person or company), and entity data corresponding tothe entity (e.g., aliases of a person, a description of a company, aclassification of a product, and the like).

In embodiments, each edge 254 in the knowledge graph 210 may connect two(or more) entity nodes 252 to define a relationship between two (ormore) entities represented by the entity nodes 252 connected by the edge254. In embodiments, edges in the graph may be (or point to)relationship records 254 that respectively define a relationshipidentifier (a unique identifier that identifies the relationship/edge),a relationship type between two or more entities that defines the typeof relationship between the connected entities (e.g., “works for,”“works as,” “owns,” “released by,” “incorporated in,” “headquarteredin,” and the like), relationship data (e.g., an entity identifier of aparent entity node and entity identifier(s) of one or more child entitynodes), and relationship metadata (e.g., a date on which therelationship was created and/or identified). In this way, two entitynodes 252 that are connected by an edge 254 may describe the type ofrelationship between the two entity nodes. In the illustrated example,an entity node 252 of Company A is connected to an entity node 252 ofDelaware/USA by an edge 254 that represents an “incorporated in”relationship type. In this particular instance, the entity node 252 ofCompany A is the parent node and the entity node 252 of Delaware/USA isthe child node by way of the directed “incorporated in” edge 254.

In some embodiments, a knowledge graph 210 may further include eventnodes (not shown). Event nodes may represent events that are identifiedby the event extraction system 226. An event node may be related to oneor more entity nodes 252 via one or more edges 254, which may representrespective relationships between the event and one or more respectiveentities represented by the one or more entity nodes connected to theevent node. In some embodiments, an event node may be (or point to) anevent record 256 that corresponds to a specific event, which may definean event identifier (e.g., a unique value that identifies the event), anevent type (e.g., a merger, a new hire, a product release, and thelike), and event data (e.g., a date on which the event occurred, a placethat the event occurred, information sources from which the event wasidentified, and the like).

In the case that the information extraction system 204 identifies a newentity, event, and/or relationship, the information extraction system204 may store the structured representations of new entity,relationship, and/or event in the knowledge graph 210. In cases of knownentities, events, and/or relationships, the information extractionsystem 204 may reconcile any newly derived data in the respectivestructured representations with data already present in the knowledgegraph 210. Updating entities, events, and/or relationships in aknowledge graph 210 may include deleting or replacing structuredrelationships and/or changing data corresponding to entities, events,and/or relationships in the knowledge graph 210. Drawing from theexample of Company A acquiring Company B above, the relationship betweenthe two entities (Company A and Company B) may be represented by aparent entity node 252 of Company A, a child node 252 of Company B, andan “owns” edge 254 connecting the two entity nodes that indicates therelationship type as parent node “owns” child node. Drawing from theexample of Person X, the information extraction system 204 may updatethe knowledge graph 210 by deleting or replacing the edge 254 definingthe relationship between the entity node 252 of Person X and the entitynode 252 of Company C, such that there is no longer an edge between theentity nodes of Person X and Company C or a previously defined edge (notshown) between the two entity nodes may be replaced with an edge 254that indicates a “used to work for” relationship between the parent nodeof Person X and the child entity node of Company C. Furthermore, in thisexample, the information extraction system 204 may update the knowledgegraph 210 to include a first edge 254 indicating a “works for”relationship between a parent node 252 of Person X and a child node 252of Company B, thereby indicating that Person X works for Company B. Theinformation extracting system 204 may further include a second edge 254indicating a “works as” relationship between the parent node 252 ofPerson X and a child node 254 of a CTO Role, which may be related backto Company B by an “employs” role.

Referring back to FIG. 10, the machine learning system 212 is configuredto perform machine learning tasks. Learning tasks may include, but arenot limited to, training machine learned models to perform specifictasks and reinforcing the trained models based on feedback that isreceived in connection with the output of a model. Examples of tasksthat can be performed by machine learned models can include, but are notlimited to, classifying events, classifying entities, classifyingrelationships, scoring potential recipients of messages, and generatingtext. Depending on the task, certain types of machine learning may bebetter suited to a particular task than others. Examples of machinelearning techniques can include, but are not limited to, decision treelearning, clustering, neural networks, deep learning neural networks,support vector machines, linear regression, logistic regression, naïveBayes classifiers, k-nearest neighbor, k-means clustering, randomforests, gradient boosting, Hidden Markov models, and other suitablemodel architectures.

In embodiments, a machine learning system 212 may be configured to learnto identify and extract information about events. In some embodiments,the machine learning system 212 may be configured to train eventclassification models (e.g., neural networks). An event classificationmodel may refer to a machine learned model that is configured to receivefeatures that are extracted from one or more documents and that outputone or more potential events that may be indicated by the documents (orfeatures thereof). Examples of features that may be extracted are wordsor sequences of words contained in a document or set of documents, datesthat are extracted from the documents, sources of the documents, and thelike.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 trains eventclassification models that identify events that indicate growth of abusiness, such as new job postings, financial reports indicatingincreased sales or market share, jobs reports indicating increasedemployment numbers, announcements indicating opening of new locations,and the like. Such events, because (among other reasons) they tend to begood indicators of available budgets for acquisition of goods andservices, may be relevant to sales and marketing professionals oforganizations who provide offerings that assist with growth, such asrecruiting services, information technology systems, real estateservices, office fixtures and furnishings, architecture and designservices, and many others.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 trains eventclassification models that identify events that indicate changing needsof a company, such as C-level hires, layoffs, acquisitions, mergers,bankruptcies, product releases, and the like. Such events tend to begood indicators of companies that may require new services, as thechanging of company needs tend to correlate to implementations of newsoftware solutions or needs for specific types of services or employees.These types of events may be of interest to businesses such asconstruction companies, software companies, staffing companies, and thelike.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 trains eventclassification models that identify events that tend to indicate that abusiness is flat, shrinking or failing, such as a decrease or lack ofincrease in job postings, financial reports indicating flat or decreasedsales or market share, reports indicating decreased employment numbers,reports of lay-offs, reports indicating closing of locations, and thelike. Such events may be relevant to sales and marketing professionalsof organizations who provide offerings that assist with turnaroundefforts, such as sales coaching services, bankruptcy services, and thelike.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 trains models that areconfigured to parse job postings of an entity to determine the nature ofan organizations hiring as an indicator of need for particular types ofgoods and services. Among other things, job postings tend to be fairlytruthful, as inaccurate information would tend to adversely impact theprocess of finding the right employees. In embodiments, the machinelearning system 212 may include a classifier that learns, based on atraining data set and/or under human supervision, to classify jobpostings by type, such that the classified job postings may beassociated with indicators of specific needs of an organization (whichitself can be determined by a machine learning system that is trainedand supervised). The needs can be stored, such as in the knowledge graphand/or in a customer relationships management or other database asdescribed throughout this disclosure and the documents incorporated byreference herein, such as to allow a sales and marketing professional tofind appropriate recipients for an offering and/or configurecommunications to recipients within organizations that have relevantneeds.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 trains models that areconfigured to parse news articles mentioning an entity or individualsassociated with an entity to find events that are indicators of need forparticular types of goods and services. News articles tend to bechallenging, as they are typically unstructured and may use a wide rangeof language variations, including jargon, shorthand, and word play todescribe a given type of event. In embodiments, the machine learningsystem 212 may specify a frame for the kind of event that is beingsought, such as a specific combination of tags that characterize theevent. For example, where the machine learning system 212 needs to beconfigured to discover events related to a management change, a framecan be specified seeking the name of a person, a role within themanagement structure of a company, a company, and an action related tothat role. In embodiments, parsers may be configured for each of thoseelements of the frame, such that on a single pass of the article themachine learning system 212 can extract names, roles (e.g., “CEO” or “VPFinance” among many others), companies (including formal names andvariants like initial letters and stock symbols) and actions (e.g.,“retired,” “fired,” “hired,” “departs” and the like). In embodiments,names may include proper names of individuals (including full names,partial names, and nicknames) known to serve in particular roles, suchas reflected in a customer relationship management database (such asdescribed throughout this disclosure or in the documents incorporated byreference herein) that may be accessed by the machine learning system toassist with the parsing. The machine learning system 212, which may betrained using a training data set and/or supervised by one or morehumans, may thus learn to parse unstructured news articles and yieldevents in the form of the frame, which may be stored in the knowledgegraph, such as at nodes associated with the organization and/or theindividuals mentioned in the articles. In turn, the events may be usedto help sales and marketing professionals understand likely directionsof an enterprise. For example, among many other examples, the hiring ofa new CTO may indicate a near-term interest in purchasing new technologysolutions.

The machine learning system 212 may train event classification models inany suitable manner. For example, the machine learning system 212 mayimplement supervised, semi-supervised, and/or unsupervised trainingtechniques to train an event classification model. For example, themachine learning system 212 may train an event classification modelusing a training data set and/or supervision by humans. In someinstances, the machine learning system 212 may be provided with a baseevent classification model (e.g., a generic or randomized classificationmodel) and training data containing labeled and unlabeled data sets. Thelabeled data sets may, for example, include documents (or featuresthereof) that describe thousands or millions of known events havingknown event types. The unlabeled data sets may include documents (orfeatures thereof) without any labels or classifications that may or maynot correspond to particular events or event types. The machine learningsystem 212 may initially adjust the configuration of the base modelusing the labeled data sets. The machine learning system 212 may thentry identify events from the unlabeled data sets. In a supervisedenvironment, a human may confirm or deny an event classification of anunlabeled data set. Such confirmation or denial may be used to furtherreinforce the event classification model. Furthermore, as the system 200(e.g., the event extraction module 226) operates to extract events frominformation obtained by the crawling system 202, the machine learningsystem 212 may utilize the classification of said event classifications,the information used to make the entity classifications, and any outcomedata resulting from the event classifications to reinforce the eventclassification model(s). Such event classification models may be trainedto find various indicators, such as indicators of specific industrytrends, indicators of need and the like.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 is configured to trainentity classification models. An entity classification model may be amachine learned model that receives one or more documents (or featuresthereof) and identifies entities indicated in the documents and/orrelationships between the documents. An entity classification model mayfurther utilize the knowledge graph as input to determine entities orrelationships that may be defined in the one or more documents. Themachine learning system 212 may train entity classification models in asupervised, semi-supervised, and/or unsupervised manner. For example,the machine learning system 212 may train the entity classificationmodels using a training data set and/or supervision by humans. In someinstances, the machine learning system 212 may be provided with a baseentity classification model (e.g., a generic or randomizedclassification model) and training data containing labeled and unlabeleddata sets. The labeled data sets may include one or more documents (orthe features thereof), labels of entities referenced in the one or moredocuments, labels of relationships between the entities referenced inthe one or more documents, and the types of entities and relationships.The unlabeled data sets may include one or more documents (or thefeatures thereof), but without labels. The machine learning system 212may initially train the base entity classification model based on thelabeled data sets. The machine learning system 212 may then attemptclassify (e.g., classify entities and/or relationships) entities and/orrelationships from the unlabeled data sets. In embodiments, a human mayconfirm or deny the classifications output by an entity classificationmodel to reinforce the model. Furthermore, as the system 200 (e.g., theevent extraction module 226) operates to extract entities andrelationships from information obtained by the crawling system 202, themachine learning system 212 may utilize the classification of saidentities and relationships, the information used to make the entityclassifications, and any outcome data resulting from the entityclassifications to reinforce the entity classification model(s).

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 is configured to traingenerative models. A generative model may refer to a machine learnedmodels (e.g., neural networks, deep neural networks, recurrent neuralnetworks, and the like) that are configured to output text given anobjective (e.g., a message to generate a lead, a message to follow up acall, and the like) and one or more features/attributes of an intendedrecipient. In some embodiments, a generative model outputs sequences ofthree to ten words at a time. The machine learning system 212 may traina generative model using a corpus of text. For example, the machinelearning system 212 may train a generative model used to generateprofessional messages may be trained using a corpus of messages,professional articles, emails, text messages, and the like. For example,the machine learning system 212 may be provided messages drafted byusers for intended objective. The machine learning system 212 mayreceive the messages, the intended objectives of the messages, andoutcome data indicating whether the message was successful (e.g.,generated a lead, elicited a response, was read by the recipient, andthe like). As the directed content system 200 generates and sendsmessages and obtains outcome data relating to those messages, themachine learning system 212 may reinforce a generative model based onthe text of the messages and the outcome data.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 212 is configured to trainrecipient scoring models. A lead scoring model 212 may be a machinelearned model (e.g., a regression model) that receives features orattributes of an intended recipient of a message and a message objectiveand determines a lead score corresponding to the intended recipient. Thelead score indicates a likelihood of a successful outcome with respectto the message. Examples of successful outcomes may include, but are notlimited to, a message is viewed by the recipient, a response message issent from the recipient, an article attached in the message is read bythe recipient, or a sale is made as a result of the message. The machinelearning system 212 may train the lead scoring model 212 in asupervised, semi-supervised, or unsupervised manner. In someembodiments, the machine learning system 212 is fed a training data setthat includes sets of triplets, where a triplet may include recipientattributes (e.g., employer, role, recent events, location, and thelike), a message objective (e.g., start a conversation, make a sale,generate a website click), and a lead score assigned (e.g., by a human)to the triplet given the attributes and the message objective. Themachine learning system 212 may initially train a model based on thetraining data. As the lead scoring model is deployed and personalizedmessages are sent to users, the machine learning system 212 may receivefeedback data 272 from a recipient device 270 (e.g., message wasignored, message was read, message was read and responded to) to furthertrain the scoring model.

The machine learning system 212 may perform additional or alternativetasks not described herein. Furthermore, while the machine learningsystem 212 is described as training models, in embodiments, the machinelearning system 212 may be configured to perform classification,scoring, and content generation tasks on behalf of the other systemsdiscussed herein.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example configuration of the lead scoring system214 and the content generation system 216 for identifying intendedrecipients of messages and generating personalized messages 218 for theone or more intended recipients. Traditionally, marketers and salespeople rely on bulk emails that are created by populating contactinformation from a database into a block of free text that has fieldsfor elements that will be retrieved from the database and inserted intothe text at the position of the fields. For example, an email templatemay say “Hi {First name}, . . . ”, and first names from the databasewill be inserted at the point of the {First name} field. The methods andsystems disclosed herein enable substantial improvement and enhancementof such templated emails by making available, at large scale, a range ofinformation that is not typically available during bulk emailgeneration. This includes publicly available information aboutrecipients that may serve to personalize or customize the email in a waythat makes the message more likely to have a positive outcome (e.g.,opened, responded to, closes a deal, and the like).

The lead scoring system 214 and the content generation system 216 mayutilize the knowledge graph 210 and/or the proprietary databases 208, aswell as message data 262 and a recipient profile 264 to identifyintended recipients and to generate personalized messages 218 for theintended recipients. A personalized message 218 may refer to a messagethat includes content that is specific to the intended recipient or theorganization of the intended recipient. It is noted for purposes ofdistinguishing from traditional templated bulk messages, merelyincluding a recipient's name, address, or organization name in one ormore template fields does not constitute a personalized message 218in-and-of-itself.

In embodiments, message data 262 may refer to any information thatrelates to the messages that a user wishes to have sent. In embodiments,message data 262 may include an objective of the email. For example, theobjective an email may be to open a dialogue, make a sale, renew asubscription, have a recipient read an article, and the like. As isdiscussed below, the message data 262 may be received from a user via aclient device 260 and/or may be generated for the user by the systemsdescribed herein. In embodiments, message data may include a messagetemplate that includes content that is to be included in the body of themessage. For example, a message template may include the name of the“sender,” a description of the sender's business, a product description,and/or pricing information. A message template may be created by theuser (e.g., using the content management system disclosed elsewhereherein) or may be retrieved by the user and sent from the client device.A message template may include fields to be filled by the contentgeneration system 216 with information, including content that isgenerated by the content generation system 216 based on informationselected from the knowledge graph 210. In some embodiments, the systemmay automatically infer or generate message templates from historicaldata provided by the user and/or other users of the system 200.

Historical data may include, but is not limited to, historicalcommunication data (e.g., previously sent messages) and/or historicaland current customer relationship data, such as the dates, amounts, andattributes of business transactions. In some embodiments, the system 200may further rely on the objective of a message to generate the template.

In embodiments, a recipient profile 264 may include, among many otherexamples, information about an ideal recipient, including but notlimited to work location, job title, seniority, employer size, andemployer industry. A recipient profile 264 may be provided by a user viaa client device 260 and/or may be determined using machine learningbased on an objective of the message or other relevant factors. In thelatter scenario, the machine learning system 212 may determine whichtypes of information are relevant for predicting whether a recipientwill open and/or respond to a message. For example, the machine learningsystem 212 may determine receive feedback data 272 from recipientdevices 270. Feedback data 272 may indicate, for example, whether amessage was opened, whether a link in the message was clicked, whetheran attachment in the message was downloaded or viewed, whether aresponse was elicited, and the like.

In some scenarios, a user may have a good sense of the type of recipientthat the user believes would be interested in the user's offering. Forexample, a user may wish to sell a new software suite to CTOs of certaintypes of organizations (e.g., hospitals and health systems). In suchcases, a user may optionally input a recipient profile 264 and messagedata 262 into the system 200 via a client device 260. In additional oralternative embodiments, a recipient profile 264 may be generated bymachine learned models based on, for example, outcomes relating topersonalized messages previously generated by the system 200 and/or theobjective of the message.

In embodiments, the lead scoring system 214 is configured to identify alist of one or more intended recipients of a message based on therecipient profile 264 (whether specified by a user or generated bymachine learning). In embodiments, the lead scoring system 214 mayfilter the most relevant entities in the knowledge graph 210 using theideal recipient profile and create a recipient list. The recipient listmay indicate a list of people that fit the recipient profile. In someembodiments, the lead scoring system 214 may determine a lead score foreach person in the recipient list, whereby the lead score indicates alikelihood that a personalized message 218 sent to that person will leadto a successful outcome. In embodiments, the lead scoring system 214 mayuse historical and current data provided by the user and/or other usersof the system to assess the probability that each recipient in therecipient list will respond to the user's message, and/or will beinterested in knowing more about the user's offering, and/or willpurchase the user's offering. The historical and current data used toevaluate this likelihood may include the events and conditionsexperienced by recipients and their employers around the time they madesimilar decisions in the past, the timing of those events, and theirco-occurrence.

In some implementations, the lead scoring system 214 retrievesinformation relating to each person indicated in the recipient list fromthe knowledge graph 210. The information obtained from the knowledgegraph 210 may include information that is specific to that person and/orto the organization of the user. For example, the lead scoring system214 may obtain a title of the person, an education level of the person,an age of the person, a length of employment by the person, and/or anyevents that are associated with the person or the organization of theperson. The lead scoring system 214 may input this information to thelead scoring model, which outputs a lead score based thereon. The leadscoring system 214 may score each person in the recipient list. The leadscoring system 214 may then rank and/or filter the recipient list based,at least in part, on the lead scores of each respective person in thelist. For example, the lead scoring system 214 may exclude any peoplehaving lead scores falling below a threshold from the recipient list.The lead scoring system 214 may output the list of recipients to thecontent generation system 216.

In embodiments, determining which recipients (referred to in some casesas “leads”) should receive a communication may be based on one or moreevents extracted by the information extraction system 204. Examples ofthese types of events may include, but are not limited to, job postings,changes in revenue, legal events, changes in management, mergers,acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and many others. For a givenrecipient, the lead scoring system 214 may seek to match attributes ofan individual (such as a person associated with a company) to anextracted event. For example, in response to an event where Company Ahas acquired Company B, the attributes of an individual that may matchto the event may be “works for Company B,” “Is a C-level or VP levelexecutive,” and “Lives in New York City.” In this example, a personhaving these attributes may be receptive to a personalized message 218from an executive headhunter. In this way, the lead scoring system 214may generate the list of intended users based on the matches ofattributes of the individual to the extracted event. In someembodiments, the lead scoring system 214 may generate the list of theintended users based on the matches of attributes of the individual tothe extracted event given the subject matter and/or objective of themessage.

In embodiments, a content generation system 216 receives a recipientlist and generates a personalized message 218 for each person in thelist. The recipient list may be generated by the lead scoring system 214or may be explicitly defined by the user. The content generation system216 may employ natural language generation techniques and/or agenerative model to generate directed content that is to be included ina personalized message. In embodiments, the content generation system216 may generate directed content for each intended recipient includedin the recipient list. In generating directed content for a particularindividual, the content generation system 216 may retrieve informationthat is relevant to individual from the knowledge graph 210 and may feedthat information into a natural language generator and/or a generativemodel. In this way, the content generation system 216 may generate oneor more instances of directed content that is personalized for the user.For example, the content generation system 216 for an individual thatwas recently promoted at a company that recently went public may includethe following instances of directed content: “Congratulations on therecent promotion!” and “I just read about your company's IPO, that'sgreat news!” In embodiments, the content generation system 216 may mergethe directed content with any parts of the message that is to be commonamongst all personalized messages. In some of these embodiments, thecontent generation system 216 may merge the directed content for aparticular intended recipient with a message template to obtain apersonalized message fir the particular intended recipient. Inembodiments, the content generation system 216 may obtain the propercontact information of an intended recipient and may populate a “to”field of the message with the proper contact information. Upongenerating a personalized message, the content generation system 216 maythen output the personalized message. Outputting a personalized messagemay include transmitting the personalized message to an account of theintended recipient (e.g., an email account, a phone number, a socialmedia account, and the like), storing the personalized message in a datastore, or providing the personalized message for display to the user,where the user can edit and/or approve the personalized message beforetransmission to the intended recipient. A respective personalizedmessage 218 may be delivered to a recipient indicated in the recipientlist using a variety of messaging systems including, but not limited to,email, short message service, instant messaging, telephone, facsimile,social media direct messages, chat clients, and the like.

In embodiments, the content generation system 216 may utilize certaintopics of information when generating directed content that can beincluded in an email subject line, opening greeting, and/or otherportions of a message to make a more personal message for a recipient.For example, the content generation system 216 may utilize topics suchas references to the recipient's past (such as to events the recipientattended, educational institutions the recipient attended, or the like),to the recipient's relationships (such as friends or businessrelationships), to the recipient's affinity groups (such as clubs,sports teams, or the like), and many others. In a specific example, thecontent generation system 216 may generate directed content thatreferences the recipient's college, note that the sender observed thatthe recipient attended a recent trade show, and ask how the recent tradeshow went. In embodiments, the content generation system 216 mayretrieve information from the knowledge graph 210 regarding an intendedrecipient and may provide that information to a natural languagegenerator to obtain directed content that may reference topics that arecipient may be receptive to. In embodiments, the machine learningsystem 212 can learn which topics are most likely to lead to successfuloutcomes. For example, the machine learning system 212 may monitorfeedback data 272 to determine which messages are being opened orresponded to versus which messages are being ignored. The machinelearning system 212 use such feedback data 272 to determine topics whichare more likely to lead to successful outcomes.

Events of particular interest to sales people and marketers may includeevents that indicate a direction of the recipient's business, such asthe hiring of a C-level executive, the posting of job openings, asignificant transaction of the business (such as a merger oracquisition), a legal event (such as the outcome of a litigation, aforeclosure, or a bankruptcy proceeding), and the like. Acquiring suchinformation from public sources at scale is challenging, as sources forthe information are often unstructured and ambiguous. Accordingly, aneed exists for the improved methods and systems provided herein forretrieving information from public sources at scale, recognizinginformation that may be relevant or of interest to one or morerecipients, developing an understanding the information, and generatingcontent for communication to one or more recipients that uses at least aportion of the information.

Building the knowledge graph 210 may be an automated or semi-automatedprocess, including one where machine learning occurs with supervisionand where content derived from crawled documents is merged for an entityonce confidence is achieved that the content in fact relates to theentity. As the knowledge graph 210 grows with additional content, thepresence of more and more content enriches the context that can be usedfor further matching of events, thus improving the ability to ascribefuture events accurately to particular entities and individuals. Inembodiments, one or more knowledge graphs 210 of individuals andentities may be used to seed the knowledge graph 210 of the system 200,such as a knowledge graph 210 from a CRM database, or a publiclyavailable database of organizations and people, such as Freebase™,Jago™, Divipedia™, Link Data™, Open Data Cloud™, or the like. Inembodiments, if a user realizes that an article is not really about thecompany they expected, the user can flag the error; that is, the processof linking articles to entities can be human-supervised.

Using the above methods and systems, a wide range of content, such asnews articles and other Internet content, can be associated in aknowledge graph 210 with each of a large number of potential recipients,and the recipients can be scored based on the matching of attributes inthe knowledge graph 210 to desired attributes of the recipientsreflected in the recipient profile 264. For example, all CTOs and VPs ofengineering who have started their jobs in the last three months can bescored as the most desired recipients of a communication about a newsoftware development environment, and a relevant article can beassociated with each of them in the knowledge graph 210.

Once a set of recipients is known, the system 200 may assist withgeneration of relevant content, such as targeted emails, chats, textmessages, and the like. In such cases, the system composes apersonalized message 218 for each recipient in the recipient list bycombining a selected message template with information about therecipient and the recipient's organization that is stored in theknowledge graph 210.

The information about a recipient and/or the recipient's organizationmay be inserted into a message template using natural languagegeneration and/or a generative model to obtain the personalized message.The content generation system 216 may use statistical models oflanguage, including but not limited to automatic summarization oftextual information to generate directed content based on theinformation about the recipient and/or the recipient's organization. Inembodiments, the content generation system 216 may merge the directedcontent into a message template to obtain the personalized message for arecipient.

In embodiments, a range of approaches, or hybrids thereof, can be usedfor natural language generation. In some cases, the knowledge graph 210may be monitored and maintained to ensure that the data containedtherein is clean data. Additionally, or alternatively, the contentgeneration system 216 can be configured to use only very high confidencedata from the knowledge graph 210 (e.g., based on stored indicators ofconfidence in respective instances of data). Being clean for suchpurposes may include the data being stored as a certain part of speech(e.g., a noun phrase, a verb of a given tense, or the like). Being cleanmay also include being stored with a level of confidence that the datais accurate, such as having an indicator of confidence that it isappropriate to use abbreviations of a business name (e.g., “IBM” insteadof “International Business Machines”), that is appropriate to useabbreviated terms (e.g., “CTO” instead of “Chief Technology Officer”),or the like. In embodiments, where data in the knowledge graph 210 maynot be of sufficient structure or confidence, a generative model may beused to generate tokens (e.g., words and phrases) from the content(e.g., information from news articles, job postings, website content,etc.) in the knowledge graph 210 associated with an organization orindividual, whereby the model can be trained (e.g., using a training setof input-output pairs) to generate content, such as headlines, phrases,sentences, or longer content that can be inserted into a message.

In embodiments, each respective personalized message may be sent with amessage tracking mechanism to a respective recipient of the recipientlist. A message tracking mechanism may be a software mechanism thatcauses transmission of feedback data 272 to the system 200 in responseto a certain triggering action. For example, a message trackingmechanism may transmit a packet indicating an identifier of thepersonalized message and a timestamp when the recipient opens the email.In another example, a message tracking mechanism may transmit a packetindicating an identifier of the personalized message and a timestampwhen a recipient downloads an attachment or clicks on a link in thepersonalized message. In embodiments this may be accomplished by using abatch email system as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/884,247 (entitled: QUALITY-BASED ROUTING OF ELECTRONIC MESSAGES andfiled: Jan. 30, 2018); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/884,251(entitled: ELECTRONIC MESSAGE LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT and Filed: Jan. 30,2018); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/884,264 (entitled: MANAGINGELECTRONIC MESSAGES WITH A MESSAGE TRANSFER AGENT and filed: Jan. 30,2018); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/884,268 (entitled: MITIGATINGABUSE IN AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGE DELIVERY ENVIRONMENT and filed: Jan. 30,2018), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/884,273 (entitled:INTRODUCING A NEW MESSAGE SOURCE INTO AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGE DELIVERYENVIRONMENT and filed: Jan. 30, 2018), and PCT Application Serial NumberPCT/US18/16038 (entitled: PLATFORM FOR ELECTRONIC MESSAGE PROCESSING andfiled: Jan. 30, 2018), the contents of which are all herein incorporatedby reference. In embodiments, feedback data 272 may include additionalor alternative types of data, such as message tracking information andlanguage that was used in a response (if such response occurred).

In embodiments, the feedback data 272 corresponding to personalizedmessages sent by the system 200 and potential responses to thepersonalized messages 218 may be received by the system and analyzed byan analytical engine 290. The analytical engine 290 may utilize thefeedback data 272 to identify feedback data 272 corresponding to thepersonalized messages 218 sent by the system 200 and potential responsesto those personalized messages 218 may include, but is not limited to,whether the message 218 was opened, whether an attachment wasdownloaded, whether a message was responded to, tracking information,language of a potential response from the recipient, and any otherinformation contained explicitly or implicitly in the messagecommunications such as the time and day the message was sent, opened andreplied to, and the location where the message was read and replied to.The analytical engine 290 may perform language and/or content tests onthe feedback data 272. Language and content tests may include, but arenot limited to, AB testing, cohort analysis, funnel analysis, behavioralanalysis, and the like. The results from the analytical engine 290 maybe presented to the user. The presentation of the results can beachieved using a variety of methods including, but not limited to, aweb-based dashboard, reports or summary emails. In presenting theresults of the analytical engine 290 with respect to a set ofpersonalized messages sent on behalf of a user to the user, the user maythen take appropriate actions to refine his or her recipient profile 264and/or message template 262.

In embodiments, the system 200 may take appropriate actions by modifyingfuture personalized message using the results of language and contenttests. The system 200 may furthermore take appropriate actions to refinethe ideal recipient profile.

In embodiments, the analytical engine 290 may pass the feedback data 272to the machine learning system 212, which may use the feedback data 272to reinforce one or more models trained by the machine learning system212. In this way, the machine learning system 212 can determine whattypes of recipients correlate to higher rates of successful outcomes(e.g., are more likely to open and/or respond to a personalizedmessage), what type of events correlate to higher rates of successfuloutcomes, what time frames after an event correlate to higher rates ofsuccessful outcomes, what topics in the directed content correlate tohigher rates of successful outcomes, and the like.

As noted above, the system 200 may be used to help sales people andmarketers, such as to send automatically generated emails promoting anoffering, where the emails are enriched with information that showsawareness of context and includes information of interest to recipientswho match a given profile. The emails are in particular enriched withtext generated from a knowledge graph 200 in which relevant informationabout organizations and individuals, such as event information, isstored. In embodiments the system 200 generates subject lines, blog posttitles, content for emails, content for blog posts, or the like, such asphrases of a few words, e.g. about 5 words, about 6-8 words, about 10words, about 15 words, a paragraph, or more, up to an including a wholearticle of content. In embodiments, where large amounts of referencedata is available (such as where there are many articles about acompany), it is possible to generate full articles. In other cases,shorter content may be generated, as noted above, by training a systemto generate phrases based on training on a set of input-output pairsthat include event content as inputs and summary words and phrases asoutputs. As an example, company descriptions have been taken fromLinkedIn™ and used to generate conversational descriptions of companies.Inputs varied by company, as the nature of the data was quite diverse.Outputs were configured to include a noun-phrase and a verb-phrase,where the verb phrase was constrained to be in a given tense. Inembodiments, a platform and interface is provided herein in which one ormore individuals (e.g., curators), may review input text (such as ofcompany websites, news articles, job postings, and other content fromthe knowledge graph 210) and the individuals can enter output textsummarizing the content of the inputs in the desired form (noun phrase,verb phrase). The platform may enable the user to review content fromthe knowledge graph as well as to search an information network, such asa CRM system or the Internet, to find additional relevant information.In embodiments, the CRM system may include access to data aboutrecipients maintained in a sales database, a marketing database, aservice database, or a combination thereof, such that individualspreparing output text (which in turn is used to train the naturallanguage generation system) have access to private information, such asabout conversations between sales people and individuals in therecipient list, past communications, and the like.

In embodiments, training data from the platform may be used to train amodel to produce generated text, and the curators of the platform may inturn review the text to provide supervision and feedback to the model.

In embodiments, the system 200 may include automated follow-updetection, such that variants of language generated by the model may beevaluated based on outcomes, such as responses to emails, chats andother content, deals won, and the like. Thus, provided herein is asystem wherein the outcome of a transaction is provided as an input totrain a machine learning system to generate content targeted to arecipient who is a candidate to undertake a similar transaction.

In embodiments, outcome tracking can facilitate improvement of variouscapabilities of the system 200, such as information extraction,cleansing of content, generation of recipient profiles, identificationof recipients, and generation of text. In embodiments, text generationmay be based on the nature of the targeted recipient, such as based onattributes of the recipient's organization (such as the size of theorganization, the industry in which it participates, and the like). Inembodiments, a machine learning system may provide for controlled textgeneration, such as using a supervised approach (as described above withsummarization) and/or with an unsupervised or deep learning approach. Inembodiments, the system may train a model to learn to generate, forexample, blog post titles, email subject lines, or the like, conditionedon attributes like the industry of the recipient, the industry of asales or marketing person, or other attributes. In embodiments,different language variants may be generated, such as text of differentlengths, text of different complexity, text with different word usage(such as synonyms), and the like, and a model may be trained andimproved on outcomes to learn to generate text that is most likely toachieve a favorable outcome, such as an email or blog post being read, areply being received, content being clicked upon, a deal won, or thelike. This may include AB type testing, use of genetic algorithms, andother learning techniques that include content variation and outcometracking. In embodiment, content may be varied with respect to variousfactors such as verb tense, sentiment, and/or tone. For example, verbtense can be varied by as using rule-based generation of differentgrammatical tenses from tokens (e.g., words and phrases) contained incontent attached to a node in a knowledge graph 210. In another example,sentiment can be varied by learning positive and negative sentiment on atraining set of reviews or other content that has a known positive ornegative sentiment, such as numerically numbered or “starred” reviews one-commerce sites like Amazon™ or review sites like Yelp™. In anotherexample, tone can be varied by learning on text that has been identifiedby curators as angry, non-angry, happy, and the like. Thus, variationsof text having different length, tense, sentiment, and tone can beprovided and tracked to determine combinations that produce favorableoutcomes, such that the content generation system 216 progressivelyimproves in its ability to produce effecting content for communications.

In various embodiments using no supervision (e.g., unsupervisedlearning), as soon as the system 200 has anything as an output, thesystem 200 can begin collecting labels, which in turn can be used forlearning. In embodiments, the system can train an unsupervised model tocreate a heuristic, then apply supervision to the heuristic.

In embodiments, outcome tracking may include tracking content todetermine what events extracted by the information extraction system,when used to generate natural language content for communications, tendto predict deal closure or other favorable outcomes. Metrics on dealclosure may be obtained for machine learning from a CRM system, such asone with an integrated sales, marketing and service database asdisclosed herein and in the documents incorporated by reference.

In embodiments, the system 200 may include variations on timing ofevents that may influence deal closure; that is, the system 200 mayexplore how to slice up time periods with respect to particular types ofevents in order to determine when an event of a given type is likely tohave what kind of influence on a particular type of outcome (e.g., adeal closure). This may include events extracted by the informationextraction system 204 from public sources and events from, for example,a CRM system, an email interaction tracking system, a content managementsystem, or the like. For example, the time period during which a CTOchange has an influence on purchasing behavior can be evaluated bytesting communications over different time intervals, such that thesystem 200 learns what events, over what time scales, are worthfactoring in for purposes of collecting information, storing informationin a knowledge graph 210 (as “stale” events can be discarded), usinginformation to generate content, targeting recipients, and forming andsending communications to the recipients. Outcome tracking can includetracking interaction information with email systems, as described in thedocuments incorporated herein by reference. As examples, the machinelearning system 212 may learn what communications to send if a prospecthas opened up collateral several times in a six-month space, how thecadence of opening emails or a white paper corresponds to purchasingdecisions, and the like. As another example, if an event indicates achange in a CTO, the event may be tracked to discover a rule orheuristic, such as that a very recent (e.g., within two months) CTOchange might indicate difficulty closing a deal that was in thepipeline, while a change that is not quite as recent (e.g., between fiveand eight months before) might indicate a very favorable time tocommunicate about the same offering. Thus, methods and systems areprovided for learning time-based relevance of events for purposes ofconfiguration of communications that include content about the events torecipients of offers. In embodiments, the system 200 may vary timewindows, such as by sliding time windows of varying duration (e.g.,numbers of weeks, months, or the like) across a starting and endingperiod (e.g., one-year, some number of months, multiple years, or thelike), before or after a given date, such as a projected closing datefor a deal, or the like. The system 200 can then see what happened ateach point of time and adjust the sizes of time windows for informationextraction, recipient targeting, message generation, and other itemsthat are under control of the system 200, including under control ofmachine learning. Thus, the system can run varying time windows againsta training set of outcomes (such as deal outcomes from a CRM system asdisclosed herein) to tune the starting point and duration of a timewindows around each type of event, in order to learn what events areuseful over what time periods.

As noted above, win-loss data and other information from a CRM systemmay be used to help determine what data is useful, which in turn avoidsunnecessary communication to recipients who are not likely to beinterested. Thus, an event timing data set is provided, wherein varyingtime windows are learned for each event to determine the effect of theevent on outcomes when the event is associated with communications aboutofferings. Outcomes can include wins and losses of deals (such as formany different elements of the systems), messages opened (such as forlearning to generate subject lines of emails), messages replied to (suchas for learning to generate suitable content), and the like. Inembodiments, time windows around events may, like other elements, belearned by domain, such as where the industry involved plays a role. Forexample, the same type of event, like a CTO change, may be relevant forvery different time periods in different industries, such as based onthe duration of the typical sales cycle in the industry.

In embodiments, learning as described herein may include model-basedlearning based on one or more models or heuristics as to, for example:what types of events and other information are likely to be of interestor relevance for initiating or continuing conversations; what recipientsshould be targeted and when, based on industry domain, type of event,timing factors, and the like; what content should be included inmessages; how content should be phrased; and the like. Learning may alsoinclude deep learning, where a wide range of input factors areconsidered simultaneously, with feedback from various outcomes describedthroughout this disclosure and in the documents incorporated byreference herein. In embodiments, learning may use neural networks, suchas feed forward neural networks, classifiers, pattern recognizers, andothers. For generative features, such as natural language generation,one or more recurrent neural networks may be used. The system may run ona distributed computing infrastructure, such as a cloud architecture,such as the Amazon Web Services™ (AWS™) architecture, among others.

In embodiments, content generated using the system, such as directedcontent enriched with information extracted by the informationextraction system and stored in the knowledge graph, may be used for avariety of purposes, such as for email marketing campaigns, forpopulating emails, chats and other communications of sales people, forchats that relates to sales, marketing, service and the like, for dialogfunctions (such as by conversational agents), and the like. Inembodiments, content is used in conjunction with a content managementsystem, a customer relationship management system, or the like, asdescribed throughout this disclosure and in the documents incorporatedby reference herein.

In embodiments, methods and systems disclosed herein may be used forsales coaching. Conventionally a supervisor may review a sales call ormessage with a sales person, such as by playing audio of a call orreviewing text of an email. In embodiments, audio may be transcribed andcollected by the information extraction system disclosed herein,including to attach the transcript to a knowledge graph. The transcriptmay be used as a source of content for communications, as well as todetermine scripts for future conversations. As noted above with respectto variations in language, variations in the script for a sales call maybe developed by the natural language generation system, such asinvolving different sequences of concepts, different timing (such as byproviding guidance on how long to wait for a customer to speak),different language variations, and the like. Machine learning, such astrained on outcomes of sales conversations, may be used to developmodels and heuristics for guiding conversations, as well as to developcontent for scripts.

In embodiments, the system 200 may be used to populate a reply to anemail, such as by parsing the content of the email, preparing a replyand inserting relevant content from the knowledge graph in the reply,such as to customize a smart reply to the context, identity,organization, or domain of the sender. This may include allowing arecipient to select a short response from a menu, as well as enriching ashort response with directed content generated by the content generationsystem 216 using the knowledge graph 210.

In embodiments, the system 200 may be used in situations where a user,such as a sales, marketing, or service person, has a message template,and the system is used to fill in an introductory sentence with datathat comes from a node 252 of the knowledge graph 210 that matches oneor more attributes of the targeted recipient. This may include takingstructured data from the knowledge graph 210 about organizations andpopulating a sentence with appropriate noun phrases and verb phrases (ofappropriate tense).

In embodiments the system 200 may provide an activity feed, such as arecommended list of recipients that match timely event information inthe knowledge graph 210 based on a preexisting recipient profile orbased on a recipient profile generated by the system as described above.The system may recommend one or more templates for a given recipient andpopulate at least some of the content of an email to the recipient. Inembodiments involving email, the system 200 may learn, based onoutcomes, such as deals won, emails opened, replies, and the like, toconfigure email content, to undertake and/or optimize a number ofrelevant tasks that involve language generation, such as providing anoptimal subject line as a person types an email, suggesting a preferredlength of an email, and the like. The system 200 may look at variousattributes of generated language in optimizing generation, including thenumber of words used, average word length, average phrase length,average sentence length, grammatical complexity, tense, voice, wordentropy, tone, sentiment, and the like. In embodiments, the system 200may track outcomes based on differences (such as a calculated editdistance based on the number and type of changes) between a generatedemail (or one prepared by a worker) and a template email, such as todetermine the extent of positive or negative contribution of customizingan email from a template for a recipient.

In embodiments, the system 200 may be used to generate a smart reply,such as for an automated agent or bot that supports a chat function,such as a chat function that serves as an agent for sales, marketing orservice. For example, if representatives typically send out a link orreference in response to a given type of question from a customer withina chat, the system 200 can learn to surface the link or reference to aservice person during a chat, to facilitate more rapidly gettingrelevant information to the customer. Thus, the system 200 may learn toselect from a corpus a relevant document, video, link or the like thathas been used in the past to resolve a given question or issue.

In embodiments, the system 200 may automatically detect inappropriateconduct, such as where a customer is engaged in harassing behavior via achat function, so that the system prompts (or generates) a response thatis configured to draw the inappropriate conversation to a quickconclusion, protecting the representative from abuse and avoidingwasting time on conversations that are not likely to lead to productiveresults.

In embodiments, the system 200 may be used to support communications byservice professionals. For example, chat functions are increasingly usedto provide services, such as to help customers with standard activities,like resetting passwords, retrieving account information, and the like.In embodiments, the system 200 may serve a relevant resource, such asfrom a knowledge graph, which may be customized for the recipient withcontent that is relevant to the customer's history (such as from a CRMsystem) or that relates to events of the customer's organization (suchas extracted by the information extraction system).

In embodiments, the system 200 may provide email recommendations andcontent for service professionals. For example, when a customer submitsa support case, or has a question, the system may use events about theiraccount (such as what have the customer has done before, product usagedata, how much the customer is paying, and the like), such as based ondata maintained in a service support database (which may be integratedwith a sales and marketing database as described herein), in order toprovide recommendations about what the service professional should writein an email (such as by suggesting templates and by generatingcustomized language for the emails, as described herein). Over time,service outcomes, such as ratings, user feedback, measures of time tocomplete service, measures of whether a service ticket was opened, andothers may be used to train the system 200 to select appropriatecontent, to generate appropriate language and the, in various waysdescribed throughout this disclosure. Outcomes may further include oneor more indicators of solving a customer's problem, such as the numberof responses required (usually seeking to keep them low); presence orabsence of ticket deflection (i.e., avoiding unnecessary opening ofservice tickets by providing the right answer up front); the timeelapsed before solution or resolution of a problem; user feedback andratings; the customers net promotor score for the vendor before andafter service was provided; one or more indices of satisfaction ordissatisfaction; and the like.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example configuration of the directed contentsystem 200. In the illustrated example, the directed content system 200includes a processing system 300, a communication system 310, and astorage system 320.

The processing system 300 includes one or more processors that executecomputer-readable instructions and non-transitory memory that stores thecomputer-readable instructions. In implementations having two or moreprocessors, the two or more processors can operate in an individual ordistributed manner. In these implementations, the processors may beconnected via a bus and/or a network. The processors may be located inthe same physical device or may be located in different physicaldevices. In embodiments, the processing system 300 may execute thecrawling system 202, the information extraction system 204, the machinelearning system(s) 212, the lead scoring system 214, and the contentgeneration system 216. The processing system 300 may execute additionalsystems not shown.

The communication system 310 may include one or more transceivers thatare configured to effectuate wireless or wired communication via acommunication network 280. The communication system 310 may implementany suitable communication protocols. For example, the communicationsystem 310 may implement, for example, the IEEE 801.11 wirelesscommunication protocol and/or any suitable cellular communicationprotocol to effectuate wireless communication with external devices viaa wireless network. Additionally, or alternatively, the communicationsystem 310 may be configured to effectuate wired communication. Forexample, the communication system 310 may be configured to implement aLAN communication protocol to effectuate wired communication.

The storage system 320 includes one or more storage devices. The storagedevices may be any suitable type of computer readable mediums, includingbut not limited to read-only memory, solid state memory devices, harddisk memory devices, Flash memory devices, one-time programmable memorydevices, many time programmable memory devices, RAM, DRAM, SRAM, networkattached storage devices, and the like. The storage devices may beconnected via a bus and/or a network. Storage devices may be located atthe same physical location (e.g., in the same device and/or the samedata center) or may be distributed across multiple physical locations(e.g., across multiple data centers). In embodiments, the storage system320 may store one or more proprietary databases 208 and one or moreknowledge graphs 210.

FIG. 15 illustrates a method for generating personalized messages onbehalf of a user. In embodiments, the method is executed by the system200 described with respect to FIGS. 10-14. The method 400 may, however,be performed by any suitable system. In embodiments, the method 400 isexecuted by the processing system 300 of the system 200.

At 410, the system obtains a recipient profile and message data. Inembodiments, the message data may include a message template and/or anobjective of the message. The message data may be received from a userof the system and/or derived by the system. For example, in someembodiments, the user may provide a message objective and/or the messagetemplate. In some embodiments, the user may provide a message object andthe system may generate the message template. In embodiments, arecipient profile may indicate one or more attributes of an idealrecipient of a message that is to be sent on behalf of the user. Inembodiments, the system may receive the recipient profile from the user.In some embodiments, the system may determine the recipient profile(e.g., the one or more attributes) based on the message objective and/orone or more attributes of the user.

At 412, the system determines a recipient list based on the recipientprofile and a knowledge graph. In embodiments, the system may identifyindividuals in the knowledge graph having the one or more attributes toobtain the recipient list. In embodiments, the system may generate alead score for individuals having the one or more attributes and mayselect the recipient list based on the lead scores of the individuals.In embodiments, the lead score may be determined using a machine learnedscoring model. In embodiments, the system may include individuals havingthe one or attributes and that are associated with a particular type ofevent (e.g., a change in jobs, a change in management, works for acompany that recently was acquired). In some of these embodiments, thetime that has lapsed between the present time and the event is takeninto consideration when determining the recipient list.

At 414, the system determines, for each individual indicated in therecipient list, entity data, event data, and/or relationship datarelating to the individual or an organization of the individual. Inembodiments, the system may retrieve the event data, entity data, and/orrelationship data from the knowledge graph. For example, the system maybegin with an entity node of the individual and may traverse theknowledge graph from the entity node via the relationships of theindividual. The system may traverse the knowledge graph to identify anyother entities, relationships, or events that are somehow related to theindividual and/or entities that are related to the individual. Forexample, the system may identify information about the individual suchas the individual's organization, the individual's educationalbackground, the individual's, the individual's recent publications, newsabout the individual's organization, news mentions of the individual,and the like.

At 416, the system generates, for each individual indicated in therecipient list, a personalized message that is personalized for theindividual based on the entity data, event data, and/or relationshipdata relating to the individual or an organization of the individual. Inembodiments, the system generates directed content for each individualin the recipient list. The directed content may be based on the entitydata, event data, and/or relationship data relating to the individualand/or the organization of the individual. In embodiments, the systemmay employ natural language generators to generate the directed contentusing entity data, event data, and/or relationship data. In embodiments,the system may employ a generative model to generate the directedcontent based on the entity data, event data, and/or relationship data.In embodiments, the system may, for each individual, merge the directedcontent generated for the individual with the message template to obtaina personalized message.

At 418, the system provides the personalized messages. In embodiments,the system may provide the personalized messages by transmitting eachpersonalized message to an account of the individual for which themessage was personalized. In response to transmitting a personalizedmessage to an individual, the system may receive feedback dataindicating an outcome of the personalized message (e.g., was the messageopened and/or responded to, was a link in the message clicked, was anattachment in the message downloaded. The system may use the feedbackdata to reinforce the learning of one or more of the models describedabove and/or as training data to train new machine learned models. Inembodiments, the system may provide the personalized messages bytransmitting each personalized message to a client device of the user,whereby the user may approve a personalized message for transmissionand/or edit a personalized message before transmission to theindividual.

Referring now to FIG. 16, an environment of a multi-client serviceplatform 1600 is shown. A multi-client service platform 1600 may referto a computing system that provides customer service solutions for anynumber of different clients. As used herein, a client may refer to anorganization (e.g., a business, a government agency, a non-profit, andthe like) that engages in some form of commercial or service-relatedactivity, whereby the multi-client service platform 1600 may provide acustomized or semi-customized customer service solution to service thecustomers of the client. In embodiments, the platform 1600 is amulti-tenant platform, such that the system serves the needs of multipleclients, who in turn use the system to provide service, support and thelike to their own customers. As used herein, the term “service” shouldbe understood to encompass, except where context indicates otherwise,any of a wide range of activities involved in providing services tocustomers and others, such as via various workflows of a business,including providing services for value, servicing goods, updatingsoftware, upgrading software, providing customer support, answeringquestions, providing instructions of use, issuing refunds or returns,and many others. As used herein, except where context indicatesotherwise, a customer may refer to an entity or individual that engageswith the client (e.g., a purchaser of a product or service of theclient, a user of the client's software platform, and the like), and theterm “customer” should be understood to encompass individuals atdifferent stages of a relationship with a client, such asindividuals/organizations who are being targeted with marketing andpromotional efforts, prospects who are engaged in negotiations withsales people, customers who have purchased a product, and users of theproduct or service (such as individuals within a customer organization).Furthermore, as will be discussed in further detail, the term “contact”is used to describe organizational entities or individuals that doengage with, may engage with, or previously engaged with the client. Forexample, a “contact” may refer to a sales lead, a potential customer, aclosed customer (e.g., purchaser, licensee, lessee, loan recipient,policy holder, or the like), and/or a previous customer (e.g., apurchaser that needs service or may review the organization). In thisway, the platform 1600 may help track a contact through an entirecontact lifecycle (e.g., from the time the contact first comes to theattention of the client as a lead (such as when the client opens apromotional email or clicks on a promotional offer) until the end of thelifecycle of the client's offering(s)). It should be noted that the termcontact may refer to a customer, but also to individuals andorganizations that may not qualify as “customers” or users of a client.

In some embodiments, the platform 1600 may include, integrate with, orotherwise share data with a CRM or the like. As used in this disclosure,the term CRM may refer to 144 sophisticated customer relationsmanagement platforms (e.g., Hubspot® or Salesforce.com®), anorganization's internal databases, and/or files such as spreadsheetsmaintained by one or more persons affiliated with the organization). Insome embodiments, the platform 1600 provides a unified database 1620 inwhich a contact record 1700 serves as a primary entity for a client'ssales, marketing, service, support and perhaps other activities, suchthat individuals at a client who interact with the same customer atdifferent points in the lifecycle, involving varied workflows, haveaccess to the contact record without requiring data integration,synchronization, or other activities that are necessary in conventionalsystems where records for a contact are dispersed over disparatesystems. In embodiments, data relating to a contact may be used after adeal is closed to better service the contact's needs during a servicephase of the relationship. For example, a contact of an invoicingsoftware platform (e.g., the CFO of the company) may have initially beenentered into a CRM as a lead. The contact may have subscribed to thesoftware platform, thereby becoming a customer. The contact (or anothercontact affiliated with the client) may later have an issue using aparticular feature of the invoicing software and may seek assistance.The platform 1600 may provide a customer service solution on behalf ofthe invoicing software, whereby the platform 1600 may, for example,provide one or more interfaces or means to request service. Uponreceiving a service request from the contact, the platform 1600 may haveaccess to data relating to the contact from the time the contact was alead through the service period of the relationship. In this way, theplatform 1600 may have data relating to the communications provided tothe contact when the contact was just a lead, when the deal was closed,and after the deal closed. Furthermore, the platform 1600 may haveinformation regarding other contacts of the client, which may be usefulto addressing a customer-service related issue of the contact.

In embodiments, a client, via a client device 1640, may customize itscustomer service solution, such that the customer-service solution istailored to the needs of the client and its customers. In embodiments, aclient may select one or more customer service-related service features(or “service features”) and may provide one or more customizationparameters corresponding to one or more of the service features.Customization parameters can include customized ticket attributes,service-related content (or “content”) to be used in the course ofcustomer service, root URLs for populating a knowledge graph 1622,customer service workflows (or “workflows”), and the like. For example,a client, via a client device 1640, may provide selections of one ormore features and capabilities enabled in the platform 1600 as describedthroughout this disclosure (e.g., automated content generation forcommunications, automated chat bots, AI-generated follow up emails,communication integration, call routing to service experts, and thelike) via a graphical user interface (e.g., drop-down menu, a button,text box, or the like). A client, via a client device 1640, may also usethe platform 1600 to find and provide content that may be used to helpprovide service or support to its contacts (e.g., articles that answerfrequency asked questions, “how-to” videos, user manuals, and the like)via a graphical user interface (e.g., an upload portal). The client mayfurther provide information relating to the updated content, such asdescriptions of the content, a topic heading of the content, and thelike. This can be used to classify the media content in a knowledgegraph as further described throughout this disclosure, and ultimately tohelp identify content that is relevant to a customer service issue,support issue, or the like. A client may additionally or alternativelydefine one or more customer service workflows via a graphical userinterface (e.g., a visualization tool that allows a user to define acustomer service workflows of the organization). A service workflow maydefine a manner by which a particular service-related issue or set ofservice related issues are to be handled by a client-specific servicesystem (e.g., system 1900 of FIG. 19). For example, a service workflowfor a particular client may define when a customer should be provided alink to content (e.g., useful articles or FAQs) to help the contactsolve an issue, when a client is to be routed to a human service expert,when to send a technician, when to send follow-up communications, andthe like). In embodiments, a workflow may be defined with respect to aticket pipeline. The platform 1600 may utilize the client'scustomization parameters to deploy a client-specific customer servicesystem (discussed in greater detail with respect to FIG. 19). In thisway, the customer service offerings of each respective client may betailored to the business of the client, rather than a one-size-fits-allsolution for all clients, irrespective of their business needs.

The platform 1600 provided herein enables businesses to undertakeactivities that encourage growth and profitability, including sales,marketing and service activities. Among other things, as a user of theplatform, a business user is enabled to put customer service at a highlevel of priority, including to recruit the business user's customers tohelp in the growth of the business. In embodiments, enabling customerservice involves and enables various interactions among activities of abusiness user that involve service, marketing, sales, among otheractivities. In some embodiments, the platform 1600 is configured tomanage and/or track customer service issues using customer-servicetickets (also referred to as “tickets”). A ticket may be a datastructure that corresponds to a specific issue that needs to beaddressed for a contact by or on behalf of the client. Put another way,a ticket may correspond to a service-related process, or any otherprocess or workflow that has a defined start and finish (e.g.,resolution). For example, a particular type of ticket used to support anon-line shopping client may be issued when a contact has an issue with apackage not being received. A ticket in this example would relate to anissue with the delivery of the contacts package. The ticket may remainunresolved until the contact receives the package, is refunded, or thepackage is replaced. Until the ticket is resolved, the ticket may remainan open ticket, despite the number of times the contact interacts withthe system.

In embodiments, tickets may have attributes. The attributes may includedefault attributes and/or custom attributes. Default ticket attributesare attributes that are included in any ticket issued by the platform1600. Custom attributes are attributes that are selected or otherwisedefined by a client for inclusion in tickets issued on behalf of theclient. A client may define one or more different types of tickets thatare used in the client's client-specific service system. Examples ofdefault ticket attributes, according to some implementations of theplatform 1600, may include (but are not limited to) one or more of aticket ID or ticket name attribute (e.g., a unique identifier of theticket), a ticket priority attribute (e.g., high, low, or medium) thatindicates a priority of the ticket, a ticket subject attribute (e.g.,what is the ticket concerning), a ticket description (e.g., a plain-textdescription of the issue to which the ticket pertains) attribute, apipeline ID attribute that indicates a ticket pipeline to which theticket is assigned, a pipeline stage attribute that indicates a statusof the ticket with respect to the ticket pipeline in which it is beingprocessed, a creation date attribute indicating when the ticket wascreated, a last update attribute indicating a date and/or time when theticket was last updated (e.g., the last time an action occurred withrespect to the ticket), a ticket owner attribute that indicates thecontact that initiated the ticket, and the like. Examples of customticket attributes are far ranging, as the client may define the customticket attributes, and may include a ticket type attributing indicatinga type of the ticket (e.g., service request, refund request, lost items,etc.), a contact sentiment attribute indicating whether a sentimentscore of a contact (e.g., whether the contact is happy, neutral,frustrated, angry, and the like), a contact frequency attributeindicating a number of times a contact has been contacted, a media assetattribute indicating media assets (e.g., articles or videos) that havebeen sent to the contact during the ticket's lifetime, and the like.

In embodiments, the platform 1600 includes a client configuration system1602, a ticket management system 1604, a conversation system 1606, amachine learning system 1608, a feedback system 1610, a proprietarydatabase 1620, a knowledge graph 1622, and a knowledge base 1624. Theplatform 1600 may include additional or alternative components withoutdeparting from the scope of the disclosure. Furthermore, the platform1600 may include, be integrated with or into, or communicate with thecapabilities of a CRM system and/or other enterprise systems, such asthe content development platform 100 and/or directed content system 200described above. In some embodiments, the platform 1600 enables serviceand/or support as well as at least one of sales, marketing, and contentdevelopment, with a common database (or set of related databases) thathas a single contact record for a contact.

In embodiments, the client configuration system 1602 allows a client(e.g., a user affiliated with a client) to customize a client-specificservice system, and configures and deploys the client-specific servicesystem based on the client's customizations. In embodiments, the clientconfiguration system 1602 presents a graphical user interface (GUI) to aclient user via a client device 1630. In embodiments, the GUI mayinclude one or more drop down menus that allows users to selectdifferent service features (e.g., chat bots, automated follow upmessages, FAQ pages, communication integration, and the like).Alternatively, a user affiliated with a client may select one ofmultiple packages (e.g., “basic”, “standard”, “premium”, or“enterprise”), where each package includes one or more service featuresand is priced accordingly. In these embodiments, the service features ina respective package may be cumulative, overlapping, or mutuallyexclusive. In scenarios where the packages are mutually exclusive, aclient may select multiple packages.

Once a service feature is selected, a user affiliated with the clientmay begin customize one or more aspects of the service feature (assumingthat the selected service feature is customizable). It should be notedthat some service features allow for heavy customization (e.g., workflowdefinitions, pipeline definitions, content uploads, email templates,conversation scripting, and the like), while other service features donot allow for any customization or for minimal customization (e.g.,custom logos).

In embodiments, the client configuration system 1602 is configured tointerface with the client devices 1640 to receive customizationparameters from respective clients corresponding to selected servicefeatures. As mentioned, customization parameters may include ticketattributes for client-specific tickets, service-related content (alsoreferred to as “content” or “media assets”) to be used in the course ofcustomer service, root URLs for populating a knowledge graph 1622,ticket pipeline definitions, customer service workflows (or “workflows”)definitions, communication templates and/or scripts, and the like.

In embodiments, the client configuration system 1602 is configured toallow a client (e.g., a user affiliated with a client) to configure oneor more different types of tickets that are used to record, document,manage, and/or otherwise facilitate individual customer service-relatedevents issued by contacts of the client. For example, a client cancustomize one or more different types of tickets and, for each differenttype of ticket, the custom ticket attributes of the ticket. Inembodiments, the client configuration system 1602 presents a GUI to auser affiliated with the client via a client device 1640 that allows auser to configure ticket objects, which are used to generate instancesof tickets that are configured according to the client's specifications.The user may command the client configuration system 1602 to create anew ticket object, via the GUI. In doing so, the client may define, forexample, the type of ticket, the different available priority levels, apipeline that handles the ticket, and/or other suitable information. Forexample, using a menu or a text input box, the user can designate thetype of ticket (e.g., “refund request ticket”) and the differentavailable priority levels (e.g., low or high). In embodiments, theclient configuration system 1602 may allow a user to designate apipeline to which the ticket is assigned. Alternatively, the pipelinemay be defined in a manner, such that the ticket management system 1604listens for new tickets and assigns the ticket to various pipelinesbased on the newly generated ticket and information entered in by theuser.

In embodiments, the user may further configure a ticket object byadding, removing, modifying, or otherwise updating the custom attributesof the ticket object. In embodiments, the GUI presented by the clientconfiguration system 1602 may allow the user to define new attributes.The GUI may receive an attribute name and the variable type of theattribute (e.g., an integer, a flag, a floating point, a normalizedscore, a text string, maximum and minimum values, etc.) from the uservia the GUI (e.g., using a menu and/or a text input box). Inembodiments, the GUI may allow the user to define the manner by whichthe attribute value is determined. For example, the user may designatethat a value of an attribute may be found in a specific field or fieldsof a specific database record, answers from the client in a live chat orchat bot transcript (e.g., extracted by an NLP system), and the like.The ticket management system 1604 may utilize such definitions topopulate the attributes of new ticket instances generated from theticket object. The GUI may allow a user to modify or otherwise edit theattributes of the ticket. For example, a user may rename a ticket type,add or delete attribute types, modify the data types of the differentticket attributes, and the like.

In some examples, in configuring a knowledge base of a client-specificservice system, the client configuration system 1602 may present a GUIthat allows users to upload articles, videos, tutorials, and othercontent. A knowledge base may refer to a collection of articles, videos,sound records, or other types of content that may be used to assist acontact when dealing with an issue. The contents in a knowledge base maybe provided to a contact in a variety of different manners, including bya customer-service specialist (e.g., during a live chat or in afollow-up email), by a chat bot, or from a help page (e.g., a webpagehosted by the platform 1600 or the client's website). In someembodiments, the GUI allows a user to designate one or more root URLsthat allow the platform 1600 to crawl a website for media assets and/orretrieve media assets. In some embodiments, the client configurationsystem 1602 may utilize the root URL to generate a knowledge graph 1622(or portion thereof) that references the media assets used in connectionwith a client's service system. In some embodiments, the GUI may furtherallow a user to define topic headings to which the content is relevantor directed. For example, the user may provide the topics via a textstring or may select topics from a menu or series of hierarchical menus.In embodiments, the topic headings may be used to organize the uploadedcontent in the client's help page and/or to assist in selection of thecontent when assisting a contact.

In another example, the client configuration system 1602 may present aGUI that includes a pipeline definition element. In embodiments, apipeline definition element allows a user to visually create a ticketpipeline. In some of these embodiments, the GUI may allow a user todefine one or more stages of a ticket pipeline, and for each stage inthe pipeline, the user may further define zero or more workflows thatare triggered when the ticket reaches the particular stage in thepipeline. In embodiments, the user may define the various stages of aticket pipeline and may define the attributes (and values thereof) of aticket that corresponds to each stage. For example, the user may definea new ticket stage and may define that the ticket should be in the newticket stage when a new ticket is generated but before any furthercommunications have been made to the contact. The user may then define asecond stage that indicates the ticket is waiting for further responsefrom the client and may further define that the ticket should be in the“waiting for contact” stage after a new ticket notification has beensent to the client, but before the client has responded to the request(which may be part of the client's customer service requirements). Theuser may configure the entire pipeline in this manner.

In embodiments, the client configuration system 1602 may allow a user tocreate new and/or update workflows by defining different service-relatedworkflow actions (also referred to as “actions”) and conditions thattrigger those actions. In some embodiments, a workflow may be definedwith respect to a ticket. For example, the user affiliated with a cableor internet service provider (or “ISP”) can define an action thatnotifies a customer when a new ticket is generated (e.g., generates andsends an email to the user that initiated the ticket). In this example,the GUI may be configured to allow the user to define the type or typesof information needed to trigger the condition and/or other types ofinformation that may be requested from the customer before triggeringthe email (e.g., the nature of the problem or reason for calling). TheGUI may also allow the user to provide data that may be used to generatethe email, such as an email template that is used to generate the email.Continuing this example, the user may define another action that routesthe user to a human service specialist and one or more conditions thatmay trigger the action, such as unresolved issues or client request. Theuser can add the action and conditions to the workflow, such that whenthe condition or conditions are triggered, the customer is routed to alive service specialist.

The client configuration system 1602 may allow a user affiliated with aclient to configure other service features without departing from thescope of the disclosure. For example, in embodiments, the clientconfiguration system 1602 may allow a user to upload one or more scriptsthat a chat bot may utilize to communicate with contacts. These scriptsmay include opening lines (e.g., “hello, how may we assist you today”)and a decision tree that defines dialog in response to a response fromthe contact (or lack of response). In some embodiments, the decisiontree may designate various rules that trigger certain responses, wherebythe rules may be triggered as a result of natural language processing ofinput received from the contact.

FIGS. 37-44 have been provided for examples of a manner by which aclient may provide certain customization parameters to the platform 1600via a graphical user interface (GUI). For example, FIGS. 37-38illustrate examples of GUIs that allow users to upload content to theplatform 1600 for inclusion in a knowledge graph 1622 that may be usedin connection with a client specific service system. In the GUI 3700presented in FIG. 37, a user may provide a root URL via the GUI 3700,whereby the root URL may be used by the platform 1600 to crawl and/orextract information from a series of webpages starting with the webpageindicated by the root. The GUI 3700 may further allow the user todesignate a language that the knowledge graph will support. The GUI 3800of FIG. 38 allows a user to customize a support page that is deployed onbehalf of the client. In embodiments, the GUI 3800 may allow the user toprovide customizations for a desktop-based browser, a tablet-basedbrowser, and/or a mobile-based browser. In embodiments, the GUI 3800 mayallow the user to upload or otherwise provide an icon that appears inthe browser tab of a contact landing on the client's support page and/ora logo of the client that is presented in the support page or otherrelated pages. In this example, the GUI presents a preview of theclient's support page, which includes a search bar, topic headers, andarticles that link to content (e.g., articles and/or videos). Inembodiments, a user may define the topic headers via the GUI and mayselect/upload the content to include with respect to each topic header.FIG. 39 illustrates a GUI 3900 for viewing analytics data related touploaded content (e.g., how many views of the article and the averageamount of time spent viewing the article). In this example GUI, a usercan view analytics related to articles or other media assets (e.g.,videos) that relate to customer service. In this way, a client candetermine whether its contacts are clicking on the presented contentand, if so, how engaged the average contact is by a respective mediaasset.

FIGS. 40-44 illustrate examples of GUI 4000 that allow a user of aclient to customize service workflows of the client with respect to aticket pipeline. In the example of FIG. 40, the GUI 4000 presents aticket pipeline that defines a set of triggering conditions thatautomate the processing of a ticket, such as the ticket reaching a “newticket” status when a customer initiates a new ticket, a ticket reaching“waiting on contact” status when customer is expected to make contactwith the client, a “waiting on us” status when the client is expected totake action to close the ticket, and a “closed” status when the ticketis closed. The foregoing statuses are provided for a non-limitingexample of a ticket pipeline. For each status, the user is presentedwith the option of defining a workflow when a ticket is in that status.In FIG. 41, the user has elected to define a workflow with respect tothe “new” ticket status. The user is presented with a menu that allowsthe user to create a new custom task or to automatically send a ticketnotification (e.g., an email indicating the generation of a new ticket).The example of FIG. 42, the GUI 4000 presents a menu with additionaloptions that are organized based on the action type, whereby the usercan select an action from a set of actions presented in the menu. Theexample menu of actions include creating a new task, sending a ticketnotification, adding a delay, creating a task, sending an internalemail, sending an internal SMS, sending an internal SMS message, and thelike. In the example of FIG. 43, the user has selected the ticketnotification action. In response to the selection, the GUI 4000 presentsthe user with the option to draft an email template. In the example, theuser provides the email template, including template fields such as“Ticket ID” that may be populated with the ticket ID of the newlygenerated ticket. In the example of FIG. 44, the user has created aworkflow action with respect to the new ticket status. The GUI 4000displays the workflow action with respect to the corresponding newticket status.

The example GUIs of FIGS. 37-44 are provided as non-limiting examples ofGUIs that allow a user to define example customization parameters. Theclient configuration system 1602 may allow a user to customizeadditional or alternative service features, some of which are describedin greater detail below.

Referring back to FIG. 16, in embodiments, in response to receiving aclient's customization parameters, the client configuration system 1602may configure and deploy a client-specific service system. Inembodiments, the platform 1600 implements a microservices architecture,whereby each client-specific service system may be configured as acollection of coupled services. In embodiments, the client configurationsystem 1602 may configure a client-specific service system datastructure that defines the microservices that are leveraged by aninstance of the client-specific service system data structure (which isa client-specific service system). A client-specific service system datastructure may be a data structure and/or computer readable instructionsthat define the manner by which certain microservices are accessed andthe data that is used in support of the client-specific service system.For example, the client-specific service system data structure maydefine the microservices that support the selected service features andmay include the mechanisms by which those microservices are accessed(e.g., API calls that are made to the respective microservices and thecustomization parameters used to parameterize the API calls). The clientconfiguration system 1602 may further define one or more databaseobjects (e.g., contact records, ticket records, and the like) from whichdatabase records (e.g., MySQL database records) are instantiated. Forexample, the client configuration system 1602 may configure ticketobjects for each type of ticket, where each ticket object defines theticket attributes included in tickets having the type. In embodiments,the client configuration system may include any software libraries andmodules needed to support the service features defined by the client inthe client-specific service system data structure. The client-specificservice system data structure may further include references to theproprietary database 1620 and/or the knowledge graph 1622, such that adeployed client-specific service system may have access to theproprietary database 1620 and the knowledge graph 1622.

In embodiments, the client configuration system 1602 may deploy aclient-specific service system based on the client-specific servicesystem data structure. In some of these embodiments may instantiate aninstance of the client-specific service system from the client-specificservice system data structure, whereby the client-specific servicesystem may begin accessing the microservices defined in theclient-specific service system data structure. In some of theseembodiments, the instance of the client-specific service system is acontainer (e.g., a Docker® container) and the client-specific servicesystem data structure is a container image. In these embodiments, thecontainer is configured to access the microservices, which may becontainerized themselves.

In embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 manages variousaspects of a ticket. The ticket management system 1604 may generate newtickets, assign tickets to new tickets to respective ticket pipelines,manage pipelines including updating the status of tickets as the ticketmoves through the various stages of its lifecycle, managing workflows,and the like. In some embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 isimplemented as a set of microservices, where each microservice performsa respective function.

In embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 is configured togenerate a new ticket on behalf of a client-specific service system. Insome of these embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 may listenfor requests to generate a new ticket (e.g., an API call requesting anew ticket). The request may include information needed to generate thenew ticket, including a ticket type, a subject, a description, a contactidentifier, and/or the like. The request may be received in a number ofdifferent manners. For example, a request may be received from a contactrequest (e.g., a contact fills out a form from the client's website or awebsite hosted by the platform 1600 on behalf of the client), a chat bot(e.g., when a contact raises a specific issue in a chat with the chatbot), via a customer service specialist (e.g., the client calls aservice specialist and the service specialist initiates the request),and the like. In response to receiving a ticket request, the ticketmanagement system 1604 generates a new ticket from a ticket objectcorresponding to the ticket type. The ticket management system 1604 mayinclude values in the ticket attributes of the ticket based on therequest, including the ticket type attribute, the subject attribute, thedescription attribute, the date/time created attribute (e.g., thecurrent date and/or time), the last update attribute (e.g., the currentdate and/or time), the owner attribute (e.g., the contact identifier),and the like. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the ticket managementsystem 1604 may assign a ticket to a ticket pipeline of theclient-specific service system and may update the pipeline attribute toindicate the ticket pipeline to which it was assigned and the statusattribute to indicate the status of the ticket (e.g., “new ticket”). Inembodiments, the ticket management system 1604 may store the new ticketin a database 1620 (e.g., a ticket database).

In embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 manages ticketpipelines and triggers workflows defined in the ticket pipelines. Insome embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 is configured tomanage the ticket pipelines and trigger workflows using a multi-threadedapproach. In embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 deploys aset of listening threads that listen for tickets having a certain set ofattribute values. In these embodiments, each time a ticket is updated inany way (e.g., any time a ticket attribute value is newly defined oraltered), each listening thread determines whether the attribute valuesindicated in the updated ticket are the attribute values that thelistening thread is listening for. If the listening thread determinesthat the attribute values indicated in the updated ticket are theattribute values that the listening thread is listening for, thelistening thread may add the ticket to a ticket queue corresponding tothe listening thread. For example, a listening thread may listen fortickets having a ticket attribute that indicates that a communicationwas sent to a contact requesting further information. In response toidentifying a ticket having a ticket attribute that indicates that thecommunication was sent to the contact, the listening thread may add theticket to the ticket queue. Once in the ticket queue, the ticketmanagement system 1604 may update the ticket status attribute of theticket, and may trigger one or more workflows defined with respect tothe ticket status. For example, a workflow may trigger theclient-specific system to schedule a follow up email if no response isreceived from the contact within a period of time (e.g., three days).

In some embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 manages workflowson behalf of a client-specific service system. In some embodiments, theticket management system 1604 is configured to manage workflows using amulti-threaded approach. In embodiments, the ticket management system1604 deploys a set of workflow listening threads that listen for ticketshaving a certain set of attribute values. In these embodiments, eachtime a ticket is updated in any way (e.g., any time a ticket attributevalue is newly defined or altered), each workflow listening threaddetermines whether the attribute values indicated in the updated ticketare the attribute values that the workflow listening thread is listeningfor. If the workflow listening thread determines that the attributevalues indicated in the updated ticket are the attribute values that theworkflow listening thread is listening for, the listening thread may addthe ticket to a ticket queue corresponding to the workflow listeningthread. Once a ticket is added to a ticket queue corresponding to theworkflow listening thread, the ticket management system 1604 may executethe workflow with respect to the ticket. For example, during aconversation with a chat bot, a workflow listening thread may listen fora sentiment attribute value that indicates that the contact isfrustrated. When the chat bot (e.g., using NLP) determines that thecontact is frustrated (e.g., the sentiment score is below or above athreshold), the chat bot may update the sentiment attribute of a ticketcorresponding to the contact to indicate that the contact is frustrated.In response, a workflow listening thread may identify the ticket and addit to its queue. Once in the queue, the workflow may define actions thatare to be performed with respect to the ticket. For example, theworkflow may define that the ticket is to be routed to aservice-specialist. In this example, the contact may be routed to aservice-specialist, which may include updating the status of the ticketand providing any relevant ticket data to the service-specialist via aservice-specialist portal.

In embodiments, a conversation system 1606 is configured to interactwith a human to provide a two-sided conversation. In embodiments, theconversation system 1606 is implemented as a set of microservices thatcan power a chat bot. The chat bot may be configured to leverage ascript that guides a chat bot through a conversation with a contact. Asmentioned, the scripts may include a decision tree that include rulesthat trigger certain responses based on an understanding of input (e.g.,text) received from a user. For example, in response to a contactindicating a troubleshooting step performed by the contact, the scriptmay define a response to output to the contact defining a next step toundertake. In some embodiments, the rules in a script may furthertrigger workflows. In these embodiments, the chat bot may be configuredto update a ticket attribute of a ticket based on a trigged rules. Forexample, in response to identifying a troubleshooting step performed bythe contact, the chat bot may update a ticket corresponding to thecontact indicating that the client had unsuccessfully performed thetroubleshooting step, which may trigger a workflow to send the contactan article relating to another troubleshooting step from the client'sknowledge base.

In embodiments, conversation system 1606 may be configured to implementnatural language processing to effectuate communication with a contact.The conversation system 1606 may utilize machine learned models (e.g.,neural networks) that are trained on service-related conversations toprocess text received from a contact and extract a meaning from thetext. In embodiments, the models leveraged by the conversation system1606 can be trained on transcripts of customer service live chats,whereby the models are trained on both what the customer is typing andwhat the customer service specialist is typing. In this way, the modelsmay determine a meaning of input received from a contact and the chatbots may provide meaningful interactions with a contact based on theresults of the natural language processing and a script.

In embodiments, the conversation system 1606 is configured to relate theresults of natural language processing with actions. Actions may referto any process undertaken by a system. In the context of customerservice, actions can include “create ticket,” “transfer contact to aspecialist,” “cancel order,” “issue refund,” “send content,” “scheduledemo,” “schedule technician,” and the like. For example, in response tonatural language processing speech of a contact stating: “I will notaccept the package and I will just send it back,” the conversationsystem 1606 may trigger a workflow that cancels an order associated withthe contact and may begin the process to issue a refund.

In embodiments where the platform 1600 supports audible conversations,the conversation system 1606 may include voice-to-text andtext-to-speech functionality as well. In these embodiments, theconversation system 1606 may receive audio signals containing the speechof a contact and may convert the contact's speech to a text or tokenizedrepresentation of the uttered speech. Upon formulating a response to thecontact, the conversation system 1606 may convert the text of theresponse to an audio signal, which is transmitted to the contact userdevice 1680.

In embodiments, the machine learning system 1608 may be configured toperform various machine learning tasks for of the platform 1600. Themachine learning system 1608 may be implemented as a set of machinelearning related microservices.

In some embodiments, the machine learning system 1608 trains andreinforces models (e.g., neural networks, regression-based models,Hidden Markov models, decision trees, and/or the like) that are used bythe platform 1600. The machine learning system 1608 can train/reinforcemodels that are used in natural language processing, sentiment and/ortone analysis, workflow efficacy analysis, and the like. The machinelearning system 1608 may train models using supervised, semi-supervised,and/or unsupervised training techniques. In embodiments, the machinelearning system 1608 is provided with training data relating aparticular type of task, which it uses to train models that help performthe particular task. Furthermore, in embodiments, the machine learningsystem 1608 may interact with the feedback system 1610 to receivefeedback from contacts engaging with the platform 1600 to improve theperformance of the models. More detailed discussions relating to variousmachine learning tasks are discussed in greater detail throughout thisdisclosure.

In embodiments, the feedback system 1610 is configured to receive and/orextract feedback regarding interactions with a contact. The feedbacksystem 1610 may receive feedback in any suitable manner. For example, aclient-specific service system may present a contact with questionsrelating to a ticket (e.g., “was this issue resolved to your liking?” or“on a scale of 1-10 how helpful was this article?”) in a survey, duringa chat bot communication, or during a conversation with a customerservice specialist. A contact can respond to the question and thefeedback system 1610 can update a contact's records with the responseand/or pass the feedback along to the machine learning system 1608. Insome embodiments, the feedback system 1610 may send surveys to contactsand may receive the feedback from the contacts in responsive surveys.

In embodiments, the client configuration module 1602 provides a GUI bywhich clients can customize aspects of their respective feedbacksystems. For example, the client configuration module 1602 may allow auser of a client to define events that trigger a request for feedbackfrom a contact, how long after a particular triggering event to waituntil requesting the feedback, what mediums to use to request thefeedback (e.g., text, phone call, email), the actual subject matter ofrespective requests for feedback, and/or the look and feel of therequests for feedback. The user can define surveys, including questionsin the survey and the potential answers for the questions. Examples ofGUIs that allow a client to customize its feedback system are providedbelow.

FIGS. 27-35 illustrate example GUIs 2700, 2900 that allows a usercorresponding to a client to customize different aspects of the client'srespective feedback system. For example, a GUI 2700 allows the user todefine the properties of a contact that is to receive a request forfeedback and when to send the feedback request. For example, FIGS. 27,28, 34, and 35 illustrate examples of a GUI 2700 that allows the user todefine the properties of a contact that is to receive a request forfeedback and when to send the feedback request. The GUI 2700 may alsoallow a user to customize the types of questions asked (e.g., score anaspect of the client's business, ask for questions for determining a netpromotor score, follow up questions and the like), the actual content ofthe questions, and the look and feel of the feedback request. Forexample, FIGS. 29-33 illustrate examples of a GUI 2900 that allows auser to customize the types of questions asked, the actual content ofthe questions, and the look and feel of the feedback request.

In embodiments, the feedback system 1610 may be configured to extractfeedback from an interaction with a contact. In these embodiments, thefeedback system 1610 may perform tone and/or sentiment analysis on aconversation with a contact to gauge the tone or sentiment of thecontact (e.g., is the contact upset, frustrated, happy, satisfied,confused, or the like). In the case of text conversations, the feedbacksystem 1610 can extract tone and/or sentiment based on patternsrecognized in text. For example, if a user is typing or utteringexpletives or repeatedly asking to speak with a human, the feedbacksystem 1610 may recognize the patterns in the text and may determinethat the user is likely upset and/or frustrated. In the case of audibleconversations, the feedback system 1610 can extract features of theaudio signal to determine if the contact is upset, frustrated, happy,satisfied, confused, or the like. The feedback system 1610 may implementmachine learning, signal processing, natural language processing and/orother suitable techniques to extract feedback from conversations with acontact.

In embodiments, the proprietary database(s) 1620 may store and indexdata records. In embodiments, the proprietary database(s) 1620 may storecontact records, client records, and/or ticket records 1624. Theproprietary database(s) 1620 may store additional or alternative recordsas well, such as product records, communication records, deal records,and/or employee records. FIGS. 17A-17C illustrate example high levelschemas of contact records 1700 (FIG. 17A), client records 1720 (FIG.17B), and ticket records 1740 (FIG. 17C).

FIG. 17A illustrates an example schema of a contact database record1700. In embodiments, a contact data record 1700 may include a contactID 1702, a client ID 1704, purchase data 1706, ticket IDs 1708, acontact timeline 1710, and contact data 1712. The contact identifier(“ID”) 1702 may be a unique value (e.g., string or number) that uniquelyidentifies the contact from other contacts. It is noted that in someembodiments a client ID 1704 is specific to a relationship between acontact and a client, whereby the contact may only relate to a singleclient. If a certain individual interacts with multiple clients, thenthe contact may have multiple contact records associated therewith(i.e., one for each client, where the contact is a customer of differentclients (businesses) for the respective products or services of thebusinesses). The client ID 1704 indicates the client to which thecontact corresponds. In embodiments, a client ID 1704 may be a referenceto a client record 1720. In this way, the client ID 1704 defines therelationship between the contact and the client. The purchase data 1706indicates all of the purchases made by the contact with respect to theclient. In embodiments, the purchase data may indicate the productsand/or services purchased by the client and the dates on which suchproducts or services were purchased. In some embodiments, the productsand services may be presented by product IDs. The ticket IDs 1708indicate any tickets that have been issued with respect to the client.In embodiments, the ticket IDs 1708 include any tickets, resolved orunresolved, that have been issued with respect to the contact. In otherembodiments, the ticket IDs 1708 may only include tickets 1708 that arestill open.

In embodiments, the contact timeline 1710 includes a timelinedocumenting the contact's interaction with the client. The contacttimeline may include data from the point in time when the contact wassolicited as a lead, when purchases were made by the contact, whentickets were generated on behalf of the contact, when communicationswere sent to the contact, and the like. Thus, the contact data 1712 andtimeline 1710 provide a rich history of all interactions of the contactwith the client, over the lifecycle of a relationship. As a result, anindividual, such as a sales person or service professional, canunderstand and reference that history to provide relevantcommunications. More generally, the contact data 1712 may include anydata that is relevant to the contact with respect to client. Contactdata 1712 may include demographic data (e.g., age and sex), geographicdata (e.g., address, city, state, country), conversation data (e.g.,references to communications that were engaged in with the client),contact information (e.g., phone number, email address, user name), andthe like. Contact data may further include information such as a datethat the contact was entered into the system, lifecycle state (what isthe current relationship with the contact—current customer, lead, orservice only), last purchase date, recent purchase dates, on boardingdates, in-person visit dates, last login, last event, last date afeature was used, demos presented to the contact, industry vertical ofthe contact, a role of the contact, behavioral data, net promoter scoreof the contact, and/or a contact score (e.g., net value of the contactto the client or a net promotor score).

It is noted that in some embodiments, the contact record 1700 may beused across multiple platforms, such that the contact record 1700defines data relevant to the contact through the lifecycle of thecontact (e.g., from new lead and/or buyer through customer service). Inthis way, customer service may be integrated with the sales arm of theclient's business. For example, a contact record 1700 corresponding to awarehouse manager (a contact) that purchased an industrial furnace froman HVAC business (a client) may identify or otherwise reference thedates on which the warehouse manager was first contacted, allcommunications sent between the manager and the HVAC business, a productID of the furnace, and any tickets that have been initiated by thecontact on behalf of the warehouse, and the like. Thus, in someembodiments, the integration of the client's sales and marketing datawith the client's customer service infrastructure allows aclient-specific service system to address issues with a more completeview of the contact's data and reduces the need for APIs to connecttypically unconnected systems (e.g., invoicing system, CRM, contactdatabase, and the like). The foregoing database object is provided forexample. Not all the data types discussed are required and the objectmay include additional or alternative data types not herein discussed.

FIG. 17B illustrates an example schema of a client database record 1720.In embodiments, a client database record 1720 may include a client ID1722 and one or more product IDs 1724. The client ID 1722 may be aunique value (e.g., string or number) that uniquely identifies theclient from other clients. The product IDs 1724 identify/referenceproducts (e.g., goods, services, software) that are offered by theclient. A product ID 1724 of a product may reference a product record(not shown) that includes data relating to the product, includingwarranty data, serial numbers, and the like. The foregoing databaseobject is provided for example. Not all the data types discussed arerequired and the object may include additional or alternative data typesnot herein discussed.

FIG. 17C illustrates an example schema of a ticket database record 1740.In embodiments, a ticket database record 1740 may include a ticket ID1742, a client ID 1744, a contact ID 1746, ticket attributes 1748including a status attribute 1750, and other ticket data 1752. Theticket database record 1740 stores the types of ticket attributes thatmay be used to identify, track, and/or manage a ticket issued on behalfof a client. The ticket ID 1742 is a unique value (e.g., string ornumber) that uniquely identifies a ticket from other tickets. The clientID 1744 is a value that indicates the client with respect to which theticket was issued. As can be appreciated, the client ID 1744 may pointto a client record 1720 of a particular client. The contact ID 1746indicates the contact that initiated the ticket. As can be appreciated,the contact ID 1746 may point to a contact record 1720 of the contactthat initiated the ticket. The ticket attributes 1748 may include orreference any data tied to the ticket. As discussed, the ticketattributes may include default ticket attributes and/or custom ticketattributes. Examples of default ticket attributes may include a ticketpriority attribute (e.g., high, low, or medium), a ticket subjectattribute (e.g., what is the ticket concerning), a ticket descriptionattribute, a pipeline ID attribute, a creation date attribute, a lastupdate attribute, and the like. The custom ticket attributes may dependon the customizations of the customer. In an example, the custom ticketattributes may include a ticket type attributing indicating a type ofthe ticket (e.g., service request, refund request, lost items, etc.), acontact sentiment attribute indicating whether a sentiment score of acontact (e.g., whether the contact is happy, neutral, frustrated, angry,and the like), a product ID attribute that indicates a product to whichthe ticket corresponds, a contact frequency attribute indicating anumber of times a contact has been contacted, a media asset attributeindicating media assets (e.g., articles or videos) that have been sentto the contact during the ticket's lifetime, and the like. Inembodiments, the ticket attributes may further include a ticket statusattribute 1750. The ticket status attribute 1750 can indicate a statusof the ticket. The status may be defined with respect to the ticketpipeline of the client. For example, example statuses may include:ticket is opened but not acted upon, waiting for customer response, at achat bot stage, at service specialist, at visit stage, at refund state,issue resolved, and the like. In embodiments, the ticket record 1740 mayinclude additional ticket data 1752. In embodiments, the additionalticket data 1752 may include or reference the specialist or specialiststhat have helped service the ticket (e.g., employee IDs), any notesentered by specialists, a number of notes entered by the specialists, alist of materials that have been sent to the contact during attempts toresolve the issue, and the like. In embodiments, the ticket data 1752may include references to transcripts of conversations with the contactover different mediums. For example, the ticket data 1752 may include orreference conversations had with a bot, over email, in text message,over social media, and/or with a customer service specialist. The ticketdata 1752 may additionally or alternatively include analytics data. Forexample, the ticket data 1750 may include a sentiment or tone of thecontact throughout the timeline, feedback from the contact, a contactscore of the client, and the like.

In embodiments, the ticket data 1752 may include or reference a tickettimeline. A ticket timeline may indicate all actions taken with respectto the ticket and when those actions were taken. In some embodiments,the ticket timeline may be defined with respect to a client's ticketpipeline and/or workflows. The ticket timeline can identify when theticket was initiated, when different actions define in the workflowoccurred (e.g., chat bot conversation, sent link to FAQ, sent article,transferred to customer service specialist, made house call, resolvedissue, closed ticket, and the like). The ticket timeline of a ticketrecord 1740 can be updated each time a contact interacts with aclient-specific service system with respect to a particular ticket. Inthis way, many different types of information can be extracted from theticket timeline (or the ticket record in general). For example, thefollowing information may be extracted: How long a ticket took to comethrough the pipeline (e.g., how much time was needed to close theticket); how many interactions with the system did the contact have; howmuch time passed until the first response was provided; how long dideach stage in the pipeline take; how many responses were sent to thecontact; how many communications were received from the contact; howmany notes were entered into the record; and/or how many documents wereshared with the contact.

In embodiments, the knowledge graph 1622 structures a client's knowledgebase 1624. A knowledge base 1624 may refer to the set of media assets(e.g., articles, tutorials, videos, sound recordings) that can be usedto aid a contact of the client. The knowledge base 1624 of a client maybe provided by the client (e.g., uploaded by a user via an uploadportal) and/or crawled on behalf of the client by the clientconfiguration system 1602 (e.g., in response to receiving a root URL tobegin crawling). In embodiments, media assets may be assigned topicheaders that indicate the topics to which the media asset pertains. Inthis way, a link to a media asset may be displayed in relation to atopic heading and/or may be used by customer service specialists whenproviding links to a contact seeking assistance with an issue pertainingto the respective topic.

In embodiments where a knowledge graph 1622 structures the clientknowledge base 1624, the knowledge graph 1622 may store relationshipdata relating to the knowledge base 1624 of a client. In embodiments,the knowledge graph 1622 may be the knowledge graph 210 discussed above.In other embodiments, the knowledge graph 1622 may be a separateknowledge graph. In embodiments, the knowledge graph 1622 includes nodesand edges, where the nodes represent entities and the edges representrelationships between entities. Examples of types of entities that maybe stored in the knowledge graph 1622 include articles, videos,locations, contacts, clients, tickets, products, service specialists,keywords, topics, and the like. The edges may represent logicalrelationships between different entities.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example visualization of a portion of a knowledgegraph 1622, which is one mechanism among various alternatives (includingtables, key-value pairs, directed graphs, clusters, and the like) forrepresenting objects and relationships among objects handled by theplatform 1600, including contact objects, tickets, content objects (suchas for communications), client objects, timeline objects, and manyothers. In the example of FIG. 18, the knowledge graph 1622 illustratesa segment of information relating to a knowledge base of a client thatincludes multiple media assets (e.g., articles). In this example, theclient is a company called “Content Wizard” that provides a productcalled “App Creator.” Amongst the topics that are relevant to AppCreator are a “content integration” topic and an “app hosting” topic. Anarticle entitled “Emoji Support” is relevant to the “contentintegration” topic, and an article entitled “AWS Support” is relevant tothe “app hosting” topic. The knowledge graph 1622 may organize theclient's knowledge base to reflect these relationships. For example, theknowledge graph 1622 may include a client node 1802 that indicates theclient “Content Wizard” and article nodes 1804 that correspond to the“Emoji Support” article and the “AWS Support” article. Edges 1806between the client node 1802 and the respective article nodes 1804 mayindicate that the articles are part of the client's knowledge base.Furthermore, a product node 1808 corresponding to the “App Creator”product may be connected to the client node 1802 by an edge 1810 thatindicates that Content Wizard sells App Creator. Topic nodes 1812 mayconnect to a product node 1808 via edges 1814 that indicate a topic thatpertains to a product, such that content integration and app hosting aretopics that pertain to App Creator. Furthermore, the topic nodes 1812may be related to article nodes 1804 (or other media asset nodes) byedges 1816 that indicate an article represented by the article node 1804is relevant to the related topic.

Furthermore, in embodiments, a knowledge graph 1622 may organizeadditional data relating to a client. For example, the knowledge graph1622 may include ticket nodes 1818 and contact nodes 1820. A ticket node1818 may indicate a ticket that was issued on behalf of the client. Acontact node 1820 may represent a contact of the client. In thisexample, a contact node 1820 may be related to a ticket node 1818 withan edge 1822 that indicates the ticket was initiated by the contact(e.g., ticket #1234 was initiated by Tom Bird). The contact node 1820may relate to product nodes 1808 with edges 1824 that indicate thecontact has purchased a respective product (e.g., Tom Bird has purchasedApp Creator). Furthermore, the ticket node 1818 may relate to topic node1812 by an edge 1826 that indicates that the ticket for an issue with atopic (e.g., an issue with content integration). The ticket node 1818may further relate to an article node 1804 with an edge 1828 indicatingthat the article has been tried during the servicing of the ticket. Itshould be appreciated that in these embodiments, additional oralternative nodes may be used to represent different entities in thecustomer-service workflow, (e.g., status nodes, sentiment nodes, datenodes, etc.) and additional or alternative edges may be used torepresent relationships between nodes (e.g., “has the current status”,“most recent sentiment was”, “was contacted on”, “was created on”, “waslast updated on”, etc.).

The knowledge graph 1622 is a powerful mechanism that can support manyfeatures of a client-specific service system. In a first example, inresponse to a service specialist taking a call from the contact for afirst time regarding a particular ticket, the client-specific servicesystem 1900 may display a ticket history to the specialist thatindicates that the user has purchased App Creator, that the contact'sissue is with content integration, and that the contact has been sentthe Emoji Support article. In another example, an automated workflowprocess servicing the ticket may retrieve the ticket node to learn thatthe contact has already been sent the Emoji Support article, so that itmay determine a next course of action. In another example, an analyticstool may analyze all the tickets issued with a particular product andthe issues relating to those tickets. The analytics tool, havingknowledge of the client workflow, may drill down deeper to determinewhether a particular article was helpful in resolving an issue. Inanother example, a chat bot may utilize the knowledge graph to guideconversations with a contact. For instance, in an interaction betweenTom Bird and a chat bot, the chat bot may state: “I see that we've sentyou the Emoji Support article, were you able to read it?” If Tom Birdindicates that he has read it (e.g., “Yes, I have”), the chat bot maycreate a relationship between the article node 1804 and the contact node1820 indicating that Tom Bird has read the article. If Tom Birdindicates that he has not read the article, the chat bot may then sendhim a link to the article, which may be referenced in the knowledgegraph 1622 by, for example, a “web address” entity node.

It is appreciated that a full knowledge graph 1622 may containthousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of nodes and edges. Theexample of FIG. 18 is a limited example to demonstrate the utility ofthe knowledge graph 1622 in a customer service setting. In embodiments,the platform 1600 can maintain separate knowledge graphs 1614 forseparate clients or may have a knowledge graph 1622 that storesinformation relating to all clients.

The platform 1600 may add information to the knowledge graph 1622 in anysuitable manner. For example, the client configuration system 1602 mayemploy a crawling system and an information extraction system, as wasdescribed above with respect to FIG. 11 for example. In someembodiments, a crawling system may be seeded with one or more root URLs,from which the crawling system may begin crawling documents. In theexample GUI 3700 of FIG. 37 (discussed below), a user can enter a rootURL to seed the crawling system. Additionally or alternatively, theclient configuration system 1602 can add information to the knowledgegraph 1622 as it is provided by the client (e.g., via upload and/or API)or learned during operation (e.g., via the interactions with thecontacts or clients). The client configuration system 1602 may implementany suitable ontology for structuring the knowledge graph 1622.Furthermore, the platform 1600 may add new entity types and relationshiptypes to the knowledge graph the ontology as they are discovered and/orbecome necessary.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a multi-client service platform 1600deploying at least two separate client-specific service systems 1900. Afirst client-specific service system 1900-1 is deployed on behalf of afirst client and a second client-specific service system 1900-2 isdeployed on behalf of a second client. Each client-specific servicesystem 1900 may be configured according to the client's selected servicefeatures and customization parameters. Thus, the first client-specificservice system 1900-1 may provide a first set of service features, whilethe second client-specific service system 1900-2 may provide a secondset of service features that may be different than the first set ofservice features. As discussed, the platform 1600 may be implementedaccording to a microservices architecture. In these embodiments, eachclient-specific service system 1900 may be configured to access arespective set of microservices. While some microservices will be usedby all client-specific service systems 1900 (e.g., authenticationmicroservices, database services, etc.), other microservices may beaccessed by a client-specific service system 1900 only if the client hasselected service features that are supported by the other microservices.In some of these embodiments, the client-specific service systems 1900may be configured to access a set of APIs that leverage themicroservices of the multi-client service platform 1600.

In an example configuration, a client-specific service system 1900 mayinclude and/or may leverage one or more of a communication integrator1902, a ticket manager 1904, a workflow manager 1906, chat bots 1908,service specialist portals 1910, a machine learning module 1912, ananalytics module 1914, and/or a feedback module 1916. Depending on theservice features selected by a client, a client-specific service system1900 may not include one or more of the foregoing components. Inembodiments, each client-specific service system 1900 may also accessone or more proprietary databases 1620, a knowledge graph 1622, and/or aknowledge base 1624. In embodiments, each client-specific service system1900 may have client specific databases 1620, knowledge graph 1622,and/or knowledge base 1624 that only the client-specific service system1900 may access. Alternatively, one or more databases 1620, theknowledge graph 1622, and/or the knowledge base 1624 may be sharedamongst client-specific service systems 1900.

In embodiments, a client-specific service system 1900 may include one ormore APIs that allow the client to integrate one or more features of theclient-specific service system 1900 in the client's websites, enterprisesoftware, and/or applications. For example, a client website may includea chat feature, whereby a chat bot 1908 interacts with a contact througha chat bot interface (e.g., a text-based chat client) via an API thatservices the client website.

In embodiments, a communication integrator 1902 integrates communicationwith a contact over different mediums (e.g., chat bots, specialists,etc.), including the migration of the contact from one medium to anothermedium (e.g., website to chat bot, chat bot to specialist, website tospecialist, etc.). In embodiments, the communication integrator 1902 mayaccess one or more microservices of the platform 1600, including themicroservices of the conversation system 1606. For example, in responseto a contact engaging with the client's website, the communicationintegrator 1902 may access a chat bot microservice of the conversationsystem 1606, which then instantiates a chat bot 1908 that effectuatescommunication with the contact via a chat bot interface.

In embodiments, the communication integrator 1902 may be configured todetermine when or be instructed (e.g., by the workflow manager 1906) tomigrate a communication with a contact to another medium, and mayeffectuate the transfer to the different medium. For example, after adetermination that a chat bot 1908 is ineffective in communicating withthe contact, the communication integrator 1902 may transfer the contactto a customer service specialist channel 1910, where the contact canconverse with a human (e.g., via a text-based chat client or bytelephone). In embodiments, the communication integrator 1902 mayoperate in tandem with the machine learning module 1912 to determinewhen to migrate a contact to another communication medium. For example,if the machine learning module 1912 determines the text being typed bythe contact indicates a frustration or anger on behalf of the contact,the communication integrator 1902 may instruct a chat bot to send amessage stating that the case is being transferred to a specialist andmay effectuate the transfer. In effectuating the transfer, thecommunication integrator 1902 may provide a snapshot of the contact'sdata and the ticket data to the specialist via, for example, the servicespecialist portal 1910.

In some embodiments, the communication integrator 1902 monitors eachcurrent communication session between a contact and the client-specificservice system 1900. For example, the communication integrator 1902 maymonitor open chat bot sessions, live chats with specialists, phone callswith specialists, and the like. The communication integrator 1902 maythen determine or be instructed to migrate the communication sessionfrom a first medium to a second medium. In embodiments, thecommunication integrator 1902 or another suitable component may monitorthe content of a communication session (e.g., using speech recognitionand/or NLP) to determine that a communication session is to betransferred to a different medium. In the latter scenario, the othercomponent may issue an instruction to the communication integrator 1902to transfer the communication to another medium. In response, thecommunication integrator 1902 may retrieve or otherwise obtaininformation that is relevant to the current communication session,including a ticket ID, contact information (e.g., username, location,etc.), the current issue (e.g., the reason for the ticket), and/or othersuitable information. This information may be obtained from thedatabases 1620 and/or knowledge graph 1622 accessible to theclient-specific service system 1900. The communication integrator 1902may then transfer the communication session to a different medium. Insome embodiments, the sequence by which a communication session istransferred (e.g., escalating from a chat bot to a specialist orescalating from a text-based chat to a phone call) is defined in acustom workflow provided by the client. The communication integrator1902 may feed the obtained data to the medium. For example, if beingtransferred to a specialist, the communication integrator 1902 maypopulate a GUI of the specialist with the ticket information (e.g.,ticket ID and current issue), contact information, the ticket status,transcripts of recent conversations with the contact, and/or the like.The communication session may then commence on the new medium withoutthe contact having to provide any additional information to the system1900.

In embodiments, a ticket manager 1904 manages tickets with respect to aticket pipeline on behalf of the client. In embodiments, the ticketmanager 1904 of a client-specific service system 1900 leverages themicroservices of the ticket management system 1604 of the multi-clientservice platform 1600 to create, modify, track, and otherwise managetickets issued on behalf of the client.

In embodiments, the ticket management system 1604 may create tickets onbehalf of a respective client. The ticket management system 1604 maycreate a ticket in response to a number of different scenarios. Forexample, the ticket management system 1604 may create a ticket when acontact accesses the client's website and reports an issue or makes acustomer service request. In this example, the contact may provideidentifying information (e.g., name, account number, purchase number,email, phone number, or the like), a subject corresponding to the issue(e.g., a high level reason for initiating the ticket), and a descriptionof the issue. In another example, the ticket management system 1604 maycreate a ticket in response to contact calling or messaging a customerservice specialist with an issue, whereby the customer servicespecialist requests the new ticket. In this example, the customerservice specialist may engage in a conversation (via a text-based chat,a video chat, or a phone call) with the contact and based on theconversation may fill out a ticket request containing identifyinginformation (e.g., name of the contact, account number, purchase number,email of the contact, phone number of the contact, or the like), asubject corresponding to the issue (e.g., a high level reason forinitiating the ticket), and a description of the issue. In anotherexample, the ticket management system 1605 may receive a request tocreate a ticket from a chat bot. In this example, the chat bot mayengage in a conversation (via a text-based chat or a phone call) withthe contact in accordance with a script, whereby the script prompts thecontact to provide identifying information (e.g., name of the contact,account number, purchase number, email of the contact, phone number ofthe contact, or the like), a subject corresponding to the issue (e.g., ahigh level reason for initiating the ticket), and a description of theissue. In response to the contact providing this information to the chatbot, the chat bot may issue a request to create a new ticket containingthe provided information (e.g., using a ticket request template).

In response to a ticket request, the ticket management module 1904 maygenerate a new ticket based on the information contained in the request.In embodiments, the ticket management module 1904 may select a ticketobject from a set of ticket objects that are customized by the clientand may request a new ticket from the ticket management system 1604using a microservice of the ticket management system 1604. For example,the ticket management module 1904 may select a ticket object based onthe subject corresponding to the issue. The ticket management module1904 may provide the request for the new ticket to the ticket managementsystem 1604, whereby the ticket management module 1904 includes theticket type, the identifying information, the subject, the description,and any other relevant data with the request. The ticket managementsystem 1604 may then generate the new ticket based on the informationprovided with the request and may include additional attributes in thenew ticket, such as a ticket status, a date/time created attribute, alast updated attribute, and the like. In creating the new ticket andsetting the status of the ticket to a new ticket, the ticket managementmodule 1604 may add the new ticket to a ticket pipeline of the client.

In embodiments, the ticket management module 1904 may manage one or moreticket pipelines of the client. As discussed, the ticket managementsystem 1604 may run a set of pipeline listening threads that listen forchanges to specific attributes of a ticket, whereby when a ticketpipeline listening thread identifies a ticket having attribute valuesthat it is listening for, the ticket pipeline listening thread adds theticket to a queue corresponding to the ticket pipeline listening thread.Once in the queue, the ticket is moved to a new stage of the pipeline,and the status attribute of the ticket may be updated to reflect the newstage. For example, a ticket pipeline of an ISP client may include thefollowing stages: new ticket; in communication with contact;troubleshooting issue; obtaining feedback; and ticket closed. Once theticket is created, it is moved into the new ticket stage of thepipeline. The new ticket stage of the pipeline may include one or moreworkflows that may be performed for tickets in the new ticket stage(e.g., send notification email to contact, assign to a customer servicespecialist, instruct customer service specialist to contact the contact,etc.). As the workflows are executed, the ticket attributes of a ticketmay change, such that a pipeline listening thread may determine that acustomer service specialist has reached out to the contact. In thisexample, the pipeline listening thread may move the ticket into a queuecorresponding to the “in communication with contact” stage of the ticketpipeline.

In embodiments, the workflow manager 1906 performs tasks relating to theexecution of workflows. As discussed, a workflow defines a set ofactions to be undertaken when performing a service-related task inresponse to one or more conditions being met. In some scenarios, aworkflow may be defined with respect to a pipeline stage. In thesescenarios, a workflow may be triggered with respect to a ticket onlywhen the ticket is in the respective stage. Furthermore, a workflowincludes a set of conditions that trigger a workflow (whether theworkflow is defined with respect to a ticket pipeline or independent ofa ticket pipeline). In embodiments, the determination as to whether aworkflow is triggered is based on the attributes of a ticket. Asdiscussed, the ticket management system 1604 may deploy workflowlistening threads that listen for tickets that meet the conditions of aparticular workflow. Upon determining that a ticket meets the conditionsof a workflow (or put another way, a ticket triggers a workflow), theworkflow listening thread adds the ticket to a workflow queuecorresponding to the workflow listening thread.

In embodiments, the workflow manager 1906 may execute workflows and/orfacilitate the execution of workflows of a client. In some embodiments,the workflow manager 1906 may be implemented in a multi-threaded mannerwhere the different threads serve respective workflows. For eachworkflow, the workflow manager 1906 (e.g., a workflow manager thread)may dequeue a ticket from the workflow queue of the workflow. Theworkflow manager 1906 may then perform actions defined in the workflowand/or may request the execution of actions defined in the workflow fromanother component (e.g., a microservice). For example, a client mayconfigure the ticket pipeline to include a workflow where a notificationemail is sent to the contact initiating the contact. Upon a new ticketbeing generated the workflow manager 1906 may retrieve an email templatecorresponding to new ticket notifications, may generate the notificationemail based on the email template and data from the ticket and/or acontact record of the intended recipient, and may send the email to thecontact. In another example, a workflow may define a series of actionsto be performed after a ticket is closed, including sending a survey andfollowing up with the recipient of the survey does not respond within aperiod of time. In this example, the workflow manager 1906 may instructthe feedback module 1916 to send a survey to the contact indicated inthe ticket. If the feedback is not received within the prescribed time,the workflow manager 1906 may instruct the feedback module 1916 toresend the survey in a follow up email. The workflow manager 1906 mayperform additional or alternative functions in addition to the functionsdescribed above without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

In embodiments, a chat bot 1908 may be configured to engage inconversation with a human. A chat bot 1908 may utilize scripts, naturallanguage processing, rules-based logic, natural language generation,and/or generative models to engage in a conversation. In embodiments, aninstance of a chat bot 1908 may be instantiated to facilitate aconversation with a contact. Upon a contact being directed to a chat bot1908 (e.g., by the communication integrator 1902), the system 1900 mayinstantiate a new chat bot 1908. The system 1900 may initialize the chatbot 1908 with data relating to the contact. In embodiments, the system1900 (e.g., communication integrator 1902) may initialize a chat bot1908 with a script that is directed to handle a particular type ofconversation, a contact ID of a contact, and/or a ticket ID referencinga ticket initiated by the contact. For example, when a contact visitsthe client's webpage, an instance of a chat bot may be instantiated(e.g., by the communication integrator 1902), whereby the instance ofthe chat bot 1908 uses a script written for interacting with contactscoming to the client's page with service-related issues and a contact IDof the contact if available. In embodiments, the chat bot 1908 mayobtain information from the database 1620 and/or the knowledge graph1622 to engage in the conversation. Initially, the chat bot 1908 may usea script to begin a conversation and may populate fields in the scriptusing information obtained from the database 1620, knowledge graph 1622,a ticket ID, a contact ID, previous text in the chat, and the like. Thechat bot 1908 may receive communication from the contact (e.g., via textor audio) and may process the communication. For example, the chat bot1908 may perform natural language processing to understand the responseof the user. In embodiments, the chat bot 1908 may utilize a rules-basedapproach and/or a machine learning approach to determine the appropriateresponse. For example, if the chat bot 1908, based on the contact'sticket history asks the contact if he is having an issue with contentintegration and the contact responds by typing “Yes, I can't get emojito show up in my app,” the chat bot 1908 may rely on a rule that states:if no content has been sent to the contact, then send relevant content.In this example, the chat bot 1908 may retrieve an article describinghow to integrate emoji into an application and may send a link to thearticle to the contact (e.g., via a messaging interface or via email).In another example, the chat bot 1908 may provide a ticket timeline tothe machine learning module 1912, which in turn may leverage a neuralnetwork to determine that the best action at a given point is to send aparticular article to the contact. In this example, the chat bot 1908may retrieve the article recommended by the machine learning module 1912and may send a link to the article to the contact. In embodiments, thechat bot 1908 may utilize data from the knowledge graph 1622 to providecontent and/or to generate a response. Continuing the previous exampleabove, the chat bot 1908, in response to determining that the nextcommunication is to include a link to an article, may retrieve (or mayrequest that another component retrieve) a relevant article or videobased on the knowledge graph 1622. Having the topic/type of issue, thechat bot 1908 can identify articles or content that are related to theproduct to which the ticket corresponds that are relevant to thetopic/type of issue. The chat bot 1908 can then provide the content tothe contact (e.g., email a link or provide the link in a chatinterface). In some embodiments, a chat bot 1908 can also use theknowledge graph 1622 to formulate responses to the contact. For example,if the user asks about a particular product, the chat bot 1908 canretrieve relevant information relating to the product from the knowledgegraph 1622 (e.g., articles or FAQs relating to the product). The chatbot 1908 may be configured to understand the ontology of the knowledgegraph 1622, whereby the chat bot 1908 can query the knowledge graph toretrieve relevant data. For example, in response to a question about aparticular product, the chat bot 1908 can retrieve data relating to theproduct using the product ID of the product, and may use its knowledgeof the different types of relationships to find the answer to thecontacts questions.

In embodiments, the chat bots 1908 may be configured to escalate theticket to a specialist (e.g., via the communication integrator 1902)when the chat bot 1908 determines that it is unable to answer a contactsquestion (e.g., the results of NLP are inconclusive) or when the chatbot 1908 and/or based on tone and/or sentiment analysis (e.g., the chatbot determines that the contact is becoming upset, angry, orfrustrated). In embodiments, tone or sentiment analysis can be performedas a part of the natural language processing that is performed on thecontact's communications, such that a tone or sentiment score isincluded in the output of the natural language processing. In theseembodiments, the chat bot 1908 may help conserve resources of a client,by serving as a triage of sorts when handling a ticket. When the ticketis unable to be resolved by a chat bot 1908, a workflow may require thatthe next step is to migrate the conversation to a service-specialist. Insuch a situation, the communication integrator 1902 may migrate thecontact in accordance with the workflow manager's determination. Forexample, the communication integrator 1902 may transfer the contact to aservice specialist, whereby the service specialist communicates with thecontact via a live chat and may view relevant contact information and/orticket information via a service specialist portal 1910.

Service specialist portal 1910 may include various graphical userinterfaces that assist a service specialist when interacting with acontact or otherwise servicing a ticket of a contact. In embodiments theservice specialist portal may include chat interfaces, visualizationtools that display a specialist's open tickets and/or variouscommunication threads, analytics tools, and the like. Upon a contactand/or ticket being routed to a service specialist, the communicationintegrator 1902 may provide the specialist with all relevant datapertaining to the contact and/or the ticket. The communicationintegrator 1902 may retrieve this information from the database(s) 1620and/or the knowledge graph 1622. In an example, the communicationintegrator 1902 may display the ticket timeline of the ticket (e.g.,when events along the ticket pipeline 1904 were undertaken) in theservice specialist portal 1910, the purchase history of the contact, anycommunications with the contact, and/or any content sent to the contactinto a graphical user interface that displays relevant information tothe specialist.

FIGS. 21-23 illustrates an example service specialist portal GUIs thatmay be presented by the service specialist portal according to someembodiments of the present disclosure. In the example of FIG. 21, theGUI 2100 displays relevant ticket information to a specialist (or otheruser), as well as information relating to the contact that initiated theticket. The GUI 2100 includes a graphical representation of the ticket'stimeline (e.g. email sent), and detailed notes about different contactpoints with the contact. The GUI 2100 may show the name and informationof a contact, a date on which the ticket was issued, what articles wereopened by a contact with respect to the ticket, communications that wereundertook with the contact, and the like.

FIG. 22 illustrates a GUI 2200 that may be used to impart relevant datato a service specialist. In the illustrated state, the GUI 2200 is aportal that provides a list of a specialist's assigned tickets. In theexample GUI 2200, the specialist can view recent messages sent orreceived by the specialist, and may drill down into a particularconversation. Upon drilling down into a conversation, the GUI 2200displays relevant information of the contact in relation to a text basedcommunication session with the contact. On the right column of the GUI2200, relevant ticket and contact data is displayed to the specialist,including a name of the contact, a phone number and email address of thecontact, a date on which the contact became a contact, a lifecycle stageof the contact, and links to any tickets that the contact may have open.

FIG. 23 illustrates a GUI 2300 that may be presented to a specialist oranother service-related employee (e.g., a supervisor). The GUI 2300 ofFIG. 23 is a ticket overview GUI 2300. The GUI 2300 displays a set ofopen tickets and where the tickets are with respect to the client'sticket pipeline. In this example arrangement, the specialist orsupervisor can view tickets that are new, tickets that are awaitingcommunication from the contact, tickets that have progressed to theemail stage, tickets that have been resolved, and tickets that have beenclosed. Each ticket assigned to the specialist may be displayed in arespective card, whereby the card provides a synopsis of the ticket(e.g., date created, contact name, and general issue). In this view, aspecialist can click on a ticket card to drill down to view the detailsof a particular ticket. In response to a user selection of a particularcard, the communication integrator 1902 may retrieve a ticket recordcorresponding to the ticket represented by the selected card and mayoutput information relating to the ticket in a GUI (e.g., GUI 2100 ofFIG. 21)

In embodiments, the machine learning module 1912 may operate to performvarious machine learning tasks related to the multi-client servicesystem 1900. In some embodiments, the machine learning module 1912 maybe configured to leverage the microservices of the machine learningsystem 1608 of the platform, whereby the machine learning system 1608may provide various machine learning related services, includingtraining models for particular clients based on training data orfeedback data associated with the client. In this way, the machinelearning module 1912 may be said to train and/or leverage machinelearned models (e.g., neural networks, deep neural networks,convolutional neural networks, regression-based models, Hidden Markovmodels, decision trees, and/or other suitable model types) to performvarious tasks for the client-specific service system 1900.

In embodiments, the machine learning module 1912 may train and deploymodels (e.g., sentiment models) that are trained to gauge the sentimentand/or tone of the contact during interactions with the system 1900. Themodels may receive features relating to text and/or audio and maydetermine a likely sentiment or tone of the contact based on thosefeatures. For example, a first contact may send a message stating “Heyguys, I really love my new product, but this is broken;” and a secondcontact may send a message stating “Hey, I hate this product.” Based onfeatures such as keywords (e.g., “love,” “broken,” and “hate”), messagestructure, and/or patterns of text, a model may classify the firstmessage as being from a likely pleased contact and in a polite tone,while it may classify the second message as being from a likely angrycustomer and in a direct tone. This information may be stored as anattribute in a ticket record and/or provided to a chat bot 1608 or aservice specialist. Tone and sentiment scores may also be fed to theanalytics system 1614 and/or feedback system 1616. For example, theanalytics module 1914 may utilize tone and sentiment when determiningcontact scores, which may indicate an overall value of the contact tothe client.

In embodiments, the machine learning module 1912 can train a sentimentmodel using training data that is derived from transcripts ofconversations. The transcripts may be labeled (e.g., by a human) toindicate the sentiment of the contact during the conversation. Forexample, each transcript may include a label that indicates whether acontact was satisfied, upset, happy, confused, or the like. The labelmay be provided by an expert or provided by the contact (e.g., using asurvey). In embodiments, the machine learning module 1912 may parse atranscript to extract a set of features from each transcript. Thefeatures may be structured in a feature vector, which is combined withthe label to form a training data pair. The machine learning module 1912may train and reinforce a sentiment model based on the training datapairs. As the client-specific service system 1900 records newtranscripts, the machine learning module 1912 may reinforce thesentiment model based on the new transcripts and respective labels thathave been assigned thereto.

The machine learning module 1912 can train and/or deploy additional oralternative models as well. In embodiments, the machine learning module1912 can train models used in natural language processing. In theseembodiments, the models may be trained on conversation data ofpreviously recorded/transcribed conversations with customers.

In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 may analyze one or moreaspects of the data collected by the system 1900. In embodiments, theanalytics module 1914 calculates a contact score for a contact that isindicative of a value of the contact to the client. The contact scoremay be based on a number of different variables. For example, thecontact score may be based on a number of tickets that the user hasinitiated, an average amount of time between tickets, the sentiment ofcontact when interacting with the system 1900, an amount of revenueresulting from the relationship with the contact (or the entity withwhich the contact is affiliated), a number of purchases made by thecontact (or an affiliated entity), the most recent purchase made by thecontact, the date of the most recent purchase, a net promoter score(e.g., feedback given by the contact indicating how likely he or she isto recommend the client's product or products to someone else) and thelike. In embodiments, the contact score may be based on feedbackreceived by the feedback module 1916. The contact score may be stored inthe contacts data record, the knowledge graph 1622, and/or provided toanother component of the system (e.g., a chat bot 1608 or the servicespecialist portal 1610).

In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 may generate a contact scoreof a contact using a contact scoring model. The contact scoring modelmay be any suitable scoring model (e.g., a regression-based model or aneural network). In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 may generatea feature vector (or any other suitable data structure) corresponding tothe contact and may input the feature vector to the scoring model. Theanalytics module 1914 may obtain contact-related data from the contactrecord of the contact, the knowledge graph, or other suitable sources.The types of contact-related data may include, but are not limited to, atotal amount of revenue derived from the contact, a number of purchasesmade by the contact, an amount of loyalty points (e.g., frequent flyermiles) held by the contact, a status (e.g., “gold status” or “platinumstatus”) of the contact, an amount of time since the contact's mostrecent purchase, a number of tickets that the contact has initiated, anaverage amount of time between tickets from the contact, and/or theaverage sentiment of contact when interacting with the system (e.g., anormalized value between 0 and 10 where 0 is the worst sentiment, suchas angry or rude). In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 maynormalize or otherwise process one or more of the contact-related dataitems. For example, the analytics module 1914 may determine the averagesentiment of the contact and may normalize the sentiment on a scalebetween 0 and 10. The analytics module 1914 may then feed the featurevector to the contact scoring model, which determines and outputs thecontact score of the contact based on the feature vector. Inembodiments, the contact scoring model is a machine learned model thatis trained by the machine learning module 1912. The contact scoringmodel may be trained in a supervised, unsupervised, or semi-supervisedmanner. For example, the contact scoring model may be given trainingdata pairs, where each pair includes a feature vector corresponding to acontact and a contact score of the contact. In embodiments, the contactscore in a training data pair may be assigned by an expert affiliatedwith the client and/or the multi-client service platform 1600.

In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 may also collect and analyzedata regarding the efficacy of certain actions. For example, theanalytics module 1914 may gauge the effectiveness of certain articles orvideos, scripts used by chat bots, models used by chat bots, callshandled by customer service specialists, and the like. In embodiments,the analytics module 1914 may rely on a ticket's timeline and/orfeedback received from the contact (e.g., surveys or the like), and/orfeedback inferred (e.g., sentiment or tone) from the contact todetermine the effectiveness of certain actions in the workflow of aclient. For example, the analytics module 1914 may determine thatcertain workflow actions almost always (e.g., >90%) result in a contactescalating the ticket to another communication medium when dealing witha particular type of problem. In a more specific example, a client thatis an ISP may first provide a contact with an article describing how totroubleshoot a problem, regardless of the problem. The analytics module1914 may determine that when the ticket relates to a detected but weakersignal, contacts almost always escalate the ticket to a specialist. Theanalytics module 1914 may also determine that when the ticket relates tono signal being detected, the troubleshooting article typically resolvesthe ticket.

In embodiments, the analytics module 1914 can be configured to outputvarious analytics related statistics and information to a userassociated with the client. For example, the analytics module 1914 canpresent a GUI that indicates statistics relating to feedback receivedfrom contacts. For example, FIG. 36 illustrates an example of a GUI 3600that displays a breakdown of the net promotor scores of the contacts ofa particular client. FIG. 39 illustrates an example of a GUI 3900 thatdisplays statistics relating to articles in a knowledge graph, which mayindicate the respective usefulness of the individual articles.

In embodiments, the feedback module 1916 is configured to obtain orotherwise determine feedback from contacts. Feedback may be related to apurchase of a product (e.g., a good or service) and/or the customer. Inembodiments, feedback may be obtained directly from a contact using, forexample, surveys, questionnaires, and/or chat bots. The feedbackcollected by the feedback module 1916 may be stored in a contact recordof the contact providing feedback, provided to the analytics module1914, used as training data for reinforcing the machine learned modelsutilized by the client-specific service system 1900, and the like.

In embodiments, the feedback module 1916 may be configured to executefeedback related workflows, such that certain triggers cause thefeedback module 1916 to request feedback from a contact. Examples oftriggers may include, but are not limited to, purchases, repurchases,client visits to the contact, service technician visits, productdelivery, the ticket initiation, ticket closure, and the like. Inanother example, a lack of feedback could be a trigger to requestfeedback. Furthermore, different triggers may trigger different feedbackworkflows (e.g., a first survey is sent to a contact when an issue isresolved over the phone and a second survey is sent to a contact after atechnician visits the contact). A feedback workflow may define when tosend a feedback request to a contact, what medium to use to request thefeedback, and/or the questions to ask to the contact. Customerattributes of the contacts can also be used to determine a feedbackworkflow for a customer. Examples of customer attributes may include,but are not limited to, date the contact became a customer, lifecyclestate, last purchase date, recent purchase date, on-boarding date, lastlogin, last event, last date a feature was used, demos, industryvertical, role, demographic, behavioral attributes, a net promotor scoreof the contact, and a lifetime value.

In some embodiments, the feedback module 1916 may be trained (e.g., bythe machine learning module 1912) to determine the appropriate time totransmit a request for feedback. In embodiments, the feedback module1916 is trained to determine the appropriate communication channel torequest feedback (e.g., email, text message, push notification to nativeapplication, phone call, and the like). In embodiments, the feedbackmodule 1916 is trained to determine the appropriate questions to ask ina feedback request.

In embodiments, the feedback module 1916 is configured to extractfeedback from customer communications. For example, the feedback module1916 may analyze interactions with contacts to determine a contact'simplicit and/or explicit feedback (e.g., whether the contact wassatisfied, unsatisfied, or neutral). In an example, the feedback module1916 system may analyze text containing the phrase “this product ishorrible.” In this example, the feedback module 1916 may determine thatthe contact's feedback towards the product is bad.

In embodiments, the feedback module 1916 may be configured to displayfeedback to a user affiliated with the client. The feedback module 1916may present feedback of contacts individually. For example, the feedbackmodule 1916 may display a GUI that allows a user to view the variouscontact providing feedback and a synopsis of the contact (e.g., acontact score of the contact, a name of the contact, and the like). Theuser can click on a particular contact to drill down on their feedback,or a contact profile page. In the example of FIG. 24, an example GUI2400 allows a user to drill down on the feedback of individual contacts.In the example, the user can click on a particular contact and the GUI2400 may display the feedback provided by the contact. FIG. 25 is ascreen shot of the GUI 2500, whereby the contact's feedback is arrangedon a timeline. FIG. 26 is a screenshot of another feedback related GUI2600. In the example of FIG. 26, the feedback data of a contact isdisplayed in a timeline. In this example, the GUI 2600 displaysindividual cards that are related to various feedback events from thecontact. The cards may also display at least a portion of the feedback(e.g., scores, text, and the like). The GUI 2600 further allows the userto view the tickets of the contact, the lifecycle history of thecontact, a contact history of the contact, a last time the contactcontacted the client, and the like.

Referring now to FIG. 20, an example set of operations 2000 fordeploying a client-specific service system, according to someembodiments of the present disclosure. The method 2000 may be executedby one or more processors of the multi-client service platform 1600 ofFIG. 16, and is described with respect thereto. The method 2000 may beperformed by other suitable systems as well without departing from thescope of the disclosure.

At 2010, the multi-client service platform 1600 receives a request tocreate a new client-specific service system 1900. The request may beinitiated via a graphical user interface presented to a user affiliatedwith the client or by a sales person affiliated with the multi-clientservice system. The request may include one or more service featureswhich the client would like to incorporate into its client-specificservice system. For example, the client may opt from one or more of aticket support, ticket workflow management, multiple ticket workflows,email/chat and ticket integration, customized email templates, knowledgegraph support, conversation routing, customer service website thatincludes recommended content (e.g., articles or videos on solving commonproblems), a chat bot (text-based and/or audio-based), automated routingto service specialists, live chat, customer service analytics,customized reporting, and the like. A user affiliated with a client mayselect the service features to be included in the client-specificservice system from, for example, a menu or may subscribe to one or morebundled packages that include respective sets of service features.

At 2012, the system may receive one or more customization parameters. Inembodiments, a client user may provide one or more customizationparameters via one or more GUIs. The types of customization parametersthat a client may provide depends on the services that the client hasenlisted. The types of customization parameters may include customticket attributes, client branding (e.g., logos or photographs), rootURLs to generate a knowledge graph on behalf of the client, topicheadings for organizing a client's customer service page, media assetsto be included under each respective topic heading, ticket pipelinedefinitions, workflow definitions, communication templates for automatedgeneration communications, scripts to initiate conversations with acontact using a chat bot, telephone numbers of the client's servicespecialist system, survey questions and other feedback mechanisms,different types of analytics that may be run, and the like.

In embodiments, a client may customize tickets used in itsclient-specific service system. In these embodiments, the client maydefine one or more new ticket objects, where each ticket object maycorrespond to a different type of ticket. For example, a first ticketobject may correspond to tickets used in connection with refund requestsand a second ticket object may correspond to tickets that are used inconnection with service requests. Thus, if defining more than one ticketobject, a client may assign a ticket type to a new ticket object. Inembodiments, a ticket object includes ticket attributes. The ticketattributes may include default ticket attributes and custom ticketattributes. The default ticket attributes may be a set of ticketattributes that must remain in the ticket. Examples of default ticketattributes, according to some implementations of the platform 1600, mayinclude (but are not limited to) one or more of a ticket ID or ticketname attribute (e.g., a unique identifier of the ticket), a ticketpriority attribute (e.g., high, low, or medium) that indicates apriority of the ticket, a ticket subject attribute (e.g., what is theticket concerning), a ticket description (e.g., a plain-text descriptionof the issue to which the ticket pertains) attribute, a pipeline IDattribute that indicates a ticket pipeline to which the ticket isassigned, a pipeline stage attribute that indicates a status of theticket with respect to the ticket pipeline in which it is beingprocessed, a creation date attribute indicating when the ticket wascreated, a last update attribute indicating a date and/or time when theticket was last updated (e.g., the last time an action occurred withrespect to the ticket), a ticket owner attribute that indicates thecontact that initiated the ticket, and the like. Custom ticketattributes are attributes that a user may define, for example, using aGUI. Examples of custom ticket attributes are far ranging, as the clientmay define the custom ticket attributes, and may include a ticket typeattributing indicating a type of the ticket (e.g., service request,refund request, lost items, etc.), a contact sentiment attributeindicating whether a sentiment score of a contact (e.g., whether thecontact is happy, neutral, frustrated, angry, and the like), a contactfrequency attribute indicating a number of times a contact has beencontacted, a media asset attribute indicating media assets (e.g.,articles or videos) that have been sent to the contact during theticket's lifetime, and the like.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to customize one or more ticketpipelines for handling tickets by the client-specific service system1900, whereby a user affiliated with the client may define one or moreticket pipelines. In some embodiments, the multi-client service platform1600 may present a GUI that allows the user to define various workflowstages (e.g., “ticket created”, “waiting for contact”, “routed to chatbot”, “routed to service specialist”, “ticket closed”, and the like).For each stage, the user may define one or more conditions (e.g., ticketattribute values) that correspond to the respective stage. In this way,a ticket meeting the one or more conditions of a respective stage may bemoved to that stage. For each stage of the pipeline, the user may defineone or more workflows or actions that are performed.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to define one or more workflows.The workflows may be defined with respect to a stage of a pipeline orindependent of a pipeline. A workflow may include one or more actions.Thus, a user affiliated with a client may select one or more actions ofa workflow. For example, the user may select actions such as “createticket”, “send message”, “send email”, “route to chat bot”, “route tospecialist”, “define custom action”, and the like. In the instance wherea user elects to define a custom action, the user may provide furtherdetails on how the client-specific service is to respond. For example,the user may select that an article is to be sent to a contact upon aspecific type of problem indicated in a newly created ticket. The usermay further define the conditions that trigger the workflow. Inembodiments, the user may define these conditions using ticket attributevalues that trigger the workflow.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to have the client-specificservice system 1900 generate automated messages on behalf of the clientto contacts in connection with an issued ticket. In these scenarios, auser affiliated with the client may define communication templates thatare used to generate automated messages (e.g., SMS messages, emails,direct messages, and the like) to contact. For example, the client mayelect to have automated messages be sent to contacts at various pointsduring the workflow. The multi-client service platform 1600 may presenta graphical user interface that allows a user to upload or enter themessage template. In response to receiving the communication template,the multi-client service platform 1600 may store the message templateand may associate the template with the workflow item that uses thetemplate.

In some scenarios, the user may provide a root URL to initiate thegeneration of a knowledge base. In response to the root URL (or multipleroot URLs), the system may crawl a set of documents (e.g., webpages)starting with the root URL. In embodiments, the system may analyze(e.g., via NLP and/or document classifiers) each document and maypopulate a knowledge graph based on the analysis.

In some instances, the user may define one or more topic headings, andfor each topic heading may upload or provide links to a set of mediaassets (e.g., articles and/or videos) that relate to the heading. Insome embodiments, the media assets may be used to recommend additionalmedia assets from a series of crawled websites and/or a knowledge graph.For example, the system may identify media assets having a high degreeof similarity (e.g., cosine similarity) to the media assets provided bythe user. In these embodiments, the system may output the recommendedmedia contents to the user, such that the user may select one or more ofthe media contents for inclusion with respect to a topic heading.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to have a client-specific servicesystem provide a chat bot to handle some communications with contacts.For example, a client may elect to have a chat bot handle initialcommunications with service-seeking contacts. In some embodiments, themulti-client service platform 1600 may present a GUI to a useraffiliated with the client that allows the user to upload chat botscripts that guide the beginning of a conversation. The user may uploadadditional or alternative data that assists the chat bot, such astranscripts of conversations with human service specialists, such thatthe chat bot may be trained on conversations that have been deemedeffective (e.g., helped resolve an issue). In response to receiving thescript and/or any other data, the multi-client service platform 1600 maytrain the chat bot based on the script and/or any other data.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to have a client-specific servicesystem 1900 request feedback from contacts during one or more stages ofa workflow. In some embodiments, the multi-client service platform 1600may present a GUI to a user affiliated with the client that allows theuser to design a survey or questionnaire, including any questions andchoices that may be presented to the responder. The GUI may also allowthe user to customize other aspects of the survey or questionnaire. Forexample, the user may provide branding elements that are presented in orin relation to the survey or questionnaire. In embodiments, the user mayfeedback workflows that define when a survey or questionnaire is to besent to a user and/or the communication medium used to send the surveyor questionnaire to a user.

In some scenarios, a client may elect to have a client-specific servicesystem 1900 route contacts to a telephone call with a servicespecialist. In some of these embodiments, a user affiliated with theclient may provide routing data that can route a contact to a servicespecialist. For example, the user may provide a phone number associatedwith a call center or a roster of service specialists and their directphone numbers and/or extensions.

At 2014, the multi-client service platform 1600 may configure aclient-specific service system data structure based upon the selectedservice features and the one or more customization parameters. Inembodiments, the platform 1600 implements a microservices architecture,whereby each client-specific service system may be configured as acollection of connected services. In embodiments, the platform 1600 mayconfigure a client-specific service system data structure that definesthe microservices that are leveraged by an instance of theclient-specific service system data structure (which is aclient-specific service system). A client-specific service system datastructure may be a data structure and/or computer readable instructionsthat define the manner by which certain microservices are accessed andthe data that is used in support of the client-specific service system.For example, the client-specific service system data structure maydefine the microservices that support the selected service features andmay include the mechanisms by which those microservices are accessed(e.g., API calls that are made to the respective microservices and thecustomization parameters used to parameterize the API calls). Theplatform 1600 may further define one or more database objects (e.g.,contact records, ticket records, and the like) from which databaserecords (e.g., MySQL database records) are instantiated. For example,the client configuration system 1602 may configure ticket objects foreach type of ticket, where each ticket object defines the ticketattributes included in tickets having the type. In embodiments, theplatform 1600 may include any software libraries and modules needed tosupport the service features defined by the client in theclient-specific service system data structure. The client-specificservice system data structure may further include references to theproprietary database(s) 1620, the knowledge graph 1622, and/or knowledgebase 1624, such that a deployed client-specific service system may haveaccess to the proprietary database 1620, knowledge graph 1622, and/orthe knowledge base 1624.

At 2016, the multi-client service platform 1600 may deploy theclient-specific service system 1900. In embodiments, the multi-clientservice platform 1600 may deploy an instance (or multiple instances) ofthe client-specific service platform 1600 based on the client-specificservice system data structure. In some of embodiments, the platform 1600may instantiate an instance of the client-specific service system fromthe client-specific service system data structure, whereby theclient-specific service system 1900 may begin accessing themicroservices defined in the client-specific service system datastructure. In some of these embodiments, the instance of theclient-specific service system is a container (e.g., a Docker®container) and the client-specific service system data structure is acontainer image. For example, in embodiments where the client-specificservice system data structure is a container, the multi-client serviceplatform 1600 may install and build the instance of the client-specificservice system 1900 on one or more servers. In these embodiments, thecontainer is configured to access the microservices, which may becontainerized themselves. Once deployed, the client-specific servicesystem 1900 may begin creating tickets and performing othercustomer-service related tasks, as described above.

Having thus described several aspects and embodiments of the technologyof this application, it is to be appreciated that various alterations,modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those of ordinaryskill in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements areintended to be within the spirit and scope of the technology describedin the application. For example, those of ordinary skill in the art willreadily envision a variety of other means and/or structures forperforming the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or moreof the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/ormodifications is deemed to be within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize or be able to ascertain using nomore than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specificembodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood thatthe foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that,within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto,inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specificallydescribed. In addition, any combination of two or more features,systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods described herein, ifsuch features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods arenot mutually inconsistent, is included within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

The above-described embodiments may be implemented in any of numerousways. One or more aspects and embodiments of the present applicationinvolving the performance of processes or methods may utilize programinstructions executable by a device (e.g., a computer, a processor, orother device) to perform, or control performance of, the processes ormethods.

As used herein, the term system may define any combination of one ormore computing devices, processors, modules, software, firmware, orcircuits that operate either independently or in a distributed manner toperform one or more functions. A system may include one or moresubsystems.

In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as acomputer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storagemedia) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compactdiscs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one ormore programs that, when executed on one or more computers or otherprocessors, perform methods that implement one or more of the variousembodiments described above.

The computer readable medium or media may be transportable, such thatthe program or programs stored thereon may be loaded onto one or moredifferent computers or other processors to implement various ones of theaspects described above. In some embodiments, computer readable mediamay be non-transitory media.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that may be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects as described above. Additionally,it should be appreciated that according to one aspect, one or morecomputer programs that when executed perform methods of the presentapplication need not reside on a single computer or processor, but maybe distributed in a modular fashion among a number of differentcomputers or processors to implement various aspects of the presentapplication.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that performs particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconvey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Also, as described, some aspects may be embodied as one or more methods.The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitableway. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts areperformed in an order different than illustrated, which may includeperforming some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequentialacts in illustrative embodiments.

The present disclosure should therefore not be considered limited to theparticular embodiments described above. Various modifications,equivalent processes, as well as numerous structures to which thepresent disclosure may be applicable, will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art to which the present disclosure is directed uponreview of the present disclosure.

Detailed embodiments of the present disclosure are disclosed herein;however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments aremerely exemplary of the disclosure, which may be embodied in variousforms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosedherein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis forthe claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in theart to variously employ the present disclosure in virtually anyappropriately detailed structure.

The terms “a” or “an,” as used herein, are defined as one or more thanone. The term “another,” as used herein, is defined as at least a secondor more. The terms “including” and/or “having”, as used herein, aredefined as comprising (i.e., open transition).

While only a few embodiments of the present disclosure have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that manychanges and modifications may be made thereunto without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present disclosure as described in thefollowing claims. All patent applications and patents, both foreign anddomestic, and all other publications referenced herein are incorporatedherein in their entireties to the full extent permitted by law.

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through a machine that executes computer software, program codes,and/or instructions on a processor. The present disclosure may beimplemented as a method on the machine, as a system or apparatus as partof or in relation to the machine, or as a computer program productembodied in a computer readable medium executing on one or more of themachines. In embodiments, the processor may be part of a server, cloudserver, client, network infrastructure, mobile computing platform,stationary computing platform, or other computing platform. A processormay be any kind of computational or processing device capable ofexecuting program instructions, codes, binary instructions and the like.The processor may be or may include a signal processor, digitalprocessor, embedded processor, microprocessor or any variant such as aco-processor (math co-processor, graphic co-processor, communicationco-processor and the like) and the like that may directly or indirectlyfacilitate execution of program code or program instructions storedthereon. In addition, the processor may enable execution of multipleprograms, threads, and codes. The threads may be executed simultaneouslyto enhance the performance of the processor and to facilitatesimultaneous operations of the application. By way of implementation,methods, program codes, program instructions and the like describedherein may be implemented in one or more thread. The thread may spawnother threads that may have assigned priorities associated with them;the processor may execute these threads based on priority or any otherorder based on instructions provided in the program code. The processor,or any machine utilizing one, may include non-transitory memory thatstores methods, codes, instructions and programs as described herein andelsewhere. The processor may access a non-transitory storage mediumthrough an interface that may store methods, codes, and instructions asdescribed herein and elsewhere. The storage medium associated with theprocessor for storing methods, programs, codes, program instructions orother type of instructions capable of being executed by the computing orprocessing device may include but may not be limited to one or more of aCD-ROM, DVD, memory, hard disk, flash drive, RAM, ROM, cache and thelike.

A processor may include one or more cores that may enhance speed andperformance of a multiprocessor. In embodiments, the process may be adual core processor, quad core processors, other chip-levelmultiprocessor and the like that combine two or more independent cores(called a die).

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through a machine that executes computer software on a server,client, firewall, gateway, hub, router, or other such computer and/ornetworking hardware. The software program may be associated with aserver that may include a file server, print server, domain server,interne server, intranet server, cloud server, and other variants suchas secondary server, host server, distributed server and the like. Theserver may include one or more of memories, processors, computerreadable media, storage media, ports (physical and virtual),communication devices, and interfaces capable of accessing otherservers, clients, machines, and devices through a wired or a wirelessmedium, and the like. The methods, programs, or codes as describedherein and elsewhere may be executed by the server. In addition, otherdevices required for execution of methods as described in thisapplication may be considered as a part of the infrastructure associatedwith the server.

The server may provide an interface to other devices including, withoutlimitation, clients, other servers, printers, database servers, printservers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers,social networks, and the like. Additionally, this coupling and/orconnection may facilitate remote execution of program across thenetwork. The networking of some or all of these devices may facilitateparallel processing of a program or method at one or more locationwithout deviating from the scope of the disclosure. In addition, any ofthe devices attached to the server through an interface may include atleast one storage medium capable of storing methods, programs, codeand/or instructions. A central repository may provide programinstructions to be executed on different devices. In thisimplementation, the remote repository may act as a storage medium forprogram code, instructions, and programs.

The software program may be associated with a client that may include afile client, print client, domain client, internet client, intranetclient and other variants such as secondary client, host client,distributed client and the like. The client may include one or more ofmemories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports(physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable ofaccessing other clients, servers, machines, and devices through a wiredor a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs, or codes asdescribed herein and elsewhere may be executed by the client. Inaddition, other devices required for execution of methods as describedin this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructureassociated with the client.

The client may provide an interface to other devices including, withoutlimitation, servers, other clients, printers, database servers, printservers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers andthe like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitateremote execution of program across the network. The networking of someor all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a programor method at one or more location without deviating from the scope ofthe disclosure. In addition, any of the devices attached to the clientthrough an interface may include at least one storage medium capable ofstoring methods, programs, applications, code and/or instructions. Acentral repository may provide program instructions to be executed ondifferent devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may actas a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs.

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through network infrastructures. The network infrastructure mayinclude elements such as computing devices, servers, routers, hubs,firewalls, clients, personal computers, communication devices, routingdevices and other active and passive devices, modules and/or componentsas known in the art. The computing and/or non-computing device(s)associated with the network infrastructure may include, apart from othercomponents, a storage medium such as flash memory, buffer, stack, RAM,ROM and the like. The processes, methods, program codes, instructionsdescribed herein and elsewhere may be executed by one or more of thenetwork infrastructural elements. The methods and systems describedherein may be adapted for use with any kind of private, community, orhybrid cloud computing network or cloud computing environment, includingthose which involve features of software as a service (SaaS), platformas a service (PaaS), and/or infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein andelsewhere may be implemented on or through mobile devices. The mobiledevices may include navigation devices, cell phones, mobile phones,mobile personal digital assistants, laptops, palmtops, netbooks, pagers,electronic books readers, music players and the like. These devices mayinclude, apart from other components, a storage medium such as a flashmemory, buffer, RAM, ROM and one or more computing devices. Thecomputing devices associated with mobile devices may be enabled toexecute program codes, methods, and instructions stored thereon.Alternatively, the mobile devices may be configured to executeinstructions in collaboration with other devices. The mobile devices maycommunicate with base stations interfaced with servers and configured toexecute program codes. The mobile devices may communicate on apeer-to-peer network, mesh network, or other communications network. Theprogram code may be stored on the storage medium associated with theserver and executed by a computing device embedded within the server.The base station may include a computing device and a storage medium.The storage device may store program codes and instructions executed bythe computing devices associated with the base station.

The computer software, program codes, and/or instructions may be storedand/or accessed on machine readable media that may include: computercomponents, devices, and recording media that retain digital data usedfor computing for some interval of time; semiconductor storage known asrandom access memory (RAM); mass storage typically for more permanentstorage, such as optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like harddisks, tapes, drums, cards and other types; processor registers, cachememory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory; optical storage such asCD, DVD; removable media such as flash memory (e.g. USB sticks or keys),floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards, standalone RAMdisks, Zip drives, removable mass storage, off-line, and the like; othercomputer memory such as dynamic memory, static memory, read/writestorage, mutable storage, read only, random access, sequential access,location addressable, file addressable, content addressable, networkattached storage, storage area network, bar codes, magnetic ink, and thelike.

The methods and systems described herein may transform physical and/orintangible items from one state to another. The methods and systemsdescribed herein may also transform data representing physical and/orintangible items from one state to another.

The elements described and depicted herein, including in flowcharts andblock diagrams throughout the figures, imply logical boundaries betweenthe elements. However, according to software or hardware engineeringpractices, the depicted elements and the functions thereof may beimplemented on machines through computer executable media having aprocessor capable of executing program instructions stored thereon as amonolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or asmodules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, orany combination of these, and all such implementations may be within thescope of the present disclosure. Examples of such machines may include,but may not be limited to, personal digital assistants, laptops,personal computers, mobile phones, other handheld computing devices,medical equipment, wired or wireless communication devices, transducers,chips, calculators, satellites, tablet PCs, electronic books, gadgets,electronic devices, devices having artificial intelligence, computingdevices, networking equipment, servers, routers and the like.Furthermore, the elements depicted in the flowchart and block diagramsor any other logical component may be implemented on a machine capableof executing program instructions. Thus, while the foregoing drawingsand descriptions set forth functional aspects of the disclosed systems,no particular arrangement of software for implementing these functionalaspects should be inferred from these descriptions unless explicitlystated or otherwise clear from the context. Similarly, it will beappreciated that the various steps identified and described above may bevaried, and that the order of steps may be adapted to particularapplications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations andmodifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure.As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various stepsshould not be understood to require a particular order of execution forthose steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitlystated or otherwise clear from the context.

The methods and/or processes described above, and steps associatedtherewith, may be realized in hardware, software or any combination ofhardware and software suitable for a particular application. Thehardware may include a general-purpose computer and/or dedicatedcomputing device or specific computing device or particular aspect orcomponent of a specific computing device. The processes may be realizedin one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embeddedmicrocontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or otherprogrammable device, along with internal and/or external memory. Theprocesses may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specificintegrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic,or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured toprocess electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one ormore of the processes may be realized as a computer executable codecapable of being executed on a machine-readable medium.

The computer executable code may be created using a structuredprogramming language such as C, an object oriented programming languagesuch as C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language(including assembly languages, hardware description languages, anddatabase programming languages and technologies) that may be stored,compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices, as well asheterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, orcombinations of different hardware and software, or any other machinecapable of executing program instructions.

Thus, in one aspect, methods described above and combinations thereofmay be embodied in computer executable code that, when executing on oneor more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In anotheraspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the stepsthereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, orall of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalonedevice or other hardware. In another aspect, the means for performingthe steps associated with the processes described above may include anyof the hardware and/or software described above. All such permutationsand combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

While the disclosure has been disclosed in connection with the preferredembodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications andimprovements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present disclosure isnot to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood inthe broadest sense allowable by law.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosure (especially in the context of thefollowing claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and theplural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted bycontext. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing”are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, butnot limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of valuesherein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referringindividually to each separate value falling within the range, unlessotherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated intothe specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methodsdescribed herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwiseindicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The useof any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”)provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the disclosureand does not pose a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unlessotherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construedas indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice ofthe disclosure.

While the foregoing written description enables one of ordinary skill tomake and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof,those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence ofvariations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment,method, and examples herein. The disclosure should therefore not belimited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but byall embodiments and methods within the scope and spirit of thedisclosure.

Any element in a claim that does not explicitly state “means for”performing a specified function, or “step for” performing a specifiedfunction, is not to be interpreted as a “means” or “step” clause asspecified in 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). In particular, any use of “step of” inthe claims is not intended to invoke the provision of 35 U.S.C. §112(f).

Persons of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that numerous designconfigurations may be possible to enjoy the functional benefits of theinventive systems. Thus, given the wide variety of configurations andarrangements of embodiments of the present disclosure, the scope of thedisclosure is reflected by the breadth of the claims below rather thannarrowed by the embodiments described above.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a processingsystem of a multi-client service platform, a set of service featuresselected by a client of the multi-client service platform; receiving, bythe processing system, a set of customization parameters correspondingto the set of service features from the client, wherein the set ofcustomization parameters include a set of custom ticket attributes and aticket pipeline definition; configuring, by the processing system, aclient-specific service system data structure based on the set ofservice features and the set of customization parameters, theclient-specific service system data structure including a ticket objectdefinition that includes the set of custom ticket attributes; anddeploying, by the processing system, a client-specific service systembased on the client-specific service system data structure, theclient-specific service system being configured provide the set ofservice features to process tickets instantiated from the ticket objectdefinition in accordance with a ticket pipeline that is defined inaccordance with the ticket pipeline definition.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the ticket pipeline definition defines a plurality ofpipeline stages of the ticket pipeline and, for each pipeline stage ofthe plurality of pipeline stages, a respective set of conditions thatcorrespond to the pipeline stage such that a ticket meeting therespective set of conditions is moved to the pipeline stage.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein deploying the client-specific service systemincludes: for each pipeline stage: executing one or more pipelinelistening threads that listen for tickets having attributes that meetthe respective set of conditions corresponding to the pipeline stage;and in response to identifying a current ticket having attributes thatmeet the respective set of conditions of the pipeline stage, adding thecurrent ticket to the pipeline stage.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinadding the current ticket to the pipeline stage includes updating astatus attribute of the current ticket with a value that indicates thepipeline stage.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the ticket objectdefinition further includes a set of default ticket attributes and astatus attribute that indicates a current pipeline stage of a ticket. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the set of customization parametersfurther include: a first ticket type corresponding to the set of customticket attributes; a second set of custom ticket parameters; and asecond ticket type corresponding to the second set of custom ticketparameters.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the client-specificservice system data structure further includes a second ticket objectdefinition that includes the second set of custom ticket parameters,wherein tickets generated based on the second ticket object definitionare of the second ticket type.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the setof customization parameters include one or more workflow definitions,wherein each workflow definition defines a set of workflow conditions ofa workflow and one or more actions that are executed with respect to aticket in response to the set of workflow conditions being met by one ormore attributes of the ticket.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereindeploying the client-specific service system includes: for each of theone or more workflow definitions: executing one or more workflowlistening threads that listen for tickets having attributes that meetthe set of workflow conditions of the workflow definition; and inresponse to identifying a current ticket having attributes that meet therespective set of conditions of the pipeline stage, executing the one ormore actions of the workflow definition.
 10. The method of claim 8,wherein a workflow definition of the one or more workflow definitions isdefined with respect to a stage of the ticket pipeline definition suchthat the one or more actions are performed with respect to a ticket onlywhen the ticket is in the stage.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein aworkflow definition of the one or more workflow definitions is definedindependent of the ticket pipeline definition such that the one or moreactions are performed with respect to a ticket independent of whichstage the ticket is in.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein at least oneaction defined in at least one of the one or more workflow definitionsis selected by the client from a set of predefined actions via agraphical user interface presented by the multi-client service platform.13. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of predefined actionsinclude generating and sending an electronic communication to a contactthat owns the ticket.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the graphicaluser interface further allows the client to provide a communicationtemplate that is used to generate an electronic communication.
 15. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the set of predefined actions includesetting a task for a service specialist associated with the client. 16.The method of claim 8, wherein at least one action defined in at leastone of the one or more workflow definitions is a custom action that isdefined by the client via the graphical user interface.
 17. The methodof claim 1, wherein the set of service features includes a chat botservice feature and the set of customization parameters include a scriptto be used by chat bots of the client-specific service system.
 18. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the set of service features includes afeedback system that collects feedback from contacts of the client andthe set of customization parameters include one or more surveys definedby the client.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the client-specificservice system is configured to access one or more microservices of themulti-client service platform.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein theone or more microservices include a machine learning system thatperforms machine-learning tasks on behalf of the client-specific servicesystem.
 21. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or moremicroservices support a customer service specialist portal of theclient-specific service system.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein theone or more microservices include a conversation system that powers chatbots deployed by the client-specific service system.
 23. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the client-specific service system includes or accessesa contact database that stores contact data relating to contacts of theclient and a ticket database that stores ticket data relating to ticketsinitiated by a subset of the contacts of the client.
 24. The method ofclaim 23, wherein the contact database is shared with acustomer-relationship management system of the client, such that thecontact data is representative of an entire customer lifecycle.